M. Emmet Walsh, revered actor and unmistakable face of Hollywood, died this Wednesday at the age of 88, his representative Sandy Joseph confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter, as a result of cardiac arrest on Tuesday at a hospital in St. Albans, Vermont (USA). .USA).
Originally from Ogdensburg, New York, he graduated from Clarkson University and later the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York before embarking on an acting career that would span more than five decades, leaving an indelible mark on film and television. for his roles such as in The Jerk (A man is loose, in Spain, 1979), Blade Runner (1982) or Blood Simple (Sangrecold, in Spain, 1984), among other productions.
Walsh’s face played good-guy-looking characters with bad intentions, as he did in one of his leading roles, playing a corrupt Texas private detective in the Coen brothers’ first film, Blood Simple. That he would win the prestigious Independent Spirit Film Awards for Best Leading Actor for the role. But his popularity began with his portrayal of a crazed sniper in Steve Martin’s comedy The Jerk. Another popular appearance was playing a doctor who performs prostate exams in the vehicle in Fletch (Fletch, the extraordinary, in Spain, 1985). In Blade Runner, a film he said was “exhausting and difficult to make with perfectionist director” Ridley Scott, Walsh plays a tough police captain who brings Harrison Ford out of retirement to hunt cyborgs.
According to The New York Times, for many people the characters played by Michael Emmet Walsh made them believe that he was from the southern United States, but he could hardly have been from further north. Walsh grew up in Vermont, just a few miles from the US-Canada border. His grandfather, father and brother worked as customs agents. There is no evidence that he worked in any other profession that was not linked to the world of interpretation, according to the AP agency.
With 230 film credits, according to Imbd, her first film role was in Alice’s Restaurant (1969), and she didn’t begin playing major roles until almost a decade later, when she was forty, in Straight Time (1978) opposite Dustin Hoffman. . His last appearances were on television in The Righteous Gemstones and American Gigolo.