M. Emmet Walsh

Michael Emmet Walsh (March 22, 1935 – March 19, 2024) was an American character actor who appeared in over 200 films and television series, including small but important supporting roles such as Earl Frank in Straight Time (1978), the Madman in The Jerk (1979), Captain Bryant in Blade Runner (1982), Harv in Critters (1986), andWalt Scheel in Christmas with the Kranks (2004). He starred as private detective Loren Visser in Blood Simple (1984), the Coen Brothers' first film, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

His other numerous film appearances include Midnight Cowboy (1969), Little Big Man (1970), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Serpico (1973), The Gambler (1974), Bound for Glory (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Airport '77 (1977), Ordinary People (1980), Reds (1981), Silkwood (1983), Fletch (1985), Back to School (1986), Raising Arizona (1987), Romeo + Juliet (1996), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), The Iron Giant (1999), Calvary (2014), and Knives Out (2019).

Michael Emmet Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Katharine (née Sullivan) and Harry Maurice Walsh Sr., a customs agent. He was of Irish descent. He was raised in rural Swanton, Vermont, where he underwent a mastoid operation at age 3, which left Walsh deaf in his left ear.

He graduated from Clarkson University in 1958 (B.A., Business Administration), and in 1998, the Clarkson Alumni Association presented Walsh with the Golden Knight Award. At Clarkson, Walsh had also dabbled in stage productions, and soon after--encouraged by a faculty advisor--he moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He went on to perform in regional theater for the next decade before making his Broadway debut in 1969, with Al Pacino, in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?

After appearances in the films Midnight Cowboy (1969), Little Big Man (1970), What's Up, Doc? (1972), Serpico (1973), The Gambler (1974), and Bound for Glory (1976), Walsh came to prominence in the iconic 1977 hockey comedy film Slap Shot, in which he played the cynical small town sportswriter Dickie Dunn, and the 1978 crime film Straight Time, in which he played a parole officer. He also had a small but memorable role as a crazed sniper in the Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. One of his best-known roles was Captain Harry Bryant in Ridley Scott's cult film Blade Runner. His most acclaimed performance was arguably the double-crossing private detective in Blood Simple (1984), for which he won the first-ever Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, in 1986.In 1992, he appeared as a powerful U.S. Senator in David Winning's Killer Image.

Other prominent film roles include a doctor in the Chevy Chase film Fletch (1985), a college diving coach in the Rodney Dangerfield film Back to School (1986), the horror film Critters (1986), Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), the voice of Earl Stutz in animated film The Iron Giant (1999), the adventure film Snow Dogs (2002), and the Christmas comedy film Christmas with the Kranks, where he played one of the Kranks' neighbours.In 2019, he appeared in the mystery film Knives Out (2019).

On television, Walsh appeared as Alex Lembeck, a motorcycle cop who appointed himself as Sandy Stockton's chaperone and protector on The Sandy Duncan Show in 1972. He appeared in an episode of the NBC drama series Gibbsville in 1976 and Little House on the Prairie in 1981. Walsh also made occasional guest appearances on Home Improvement as Tim Taylor's father-in-law in 1994. Other appearances included Early Edition, The X-Files, Ed, and Frasier. He also appeared as Dr. Joseph Krofft, a medical examiner with a grudge against Andy Sipowicz, on an episode of NYPD Blue.

On stage, in 2004, Walsh appeared in the London production of Sam Shepard's Buried Child.

Critic Nicolas Rapold called Walsh "a consummate old pro of the second-banana business", while Roger Ebert hailed him as "the poet of sleaze."

In 2018, Walsh was inducted into the Character Actor Hall of Fame by his Blade Runner co-star Harrison Ford. Later in the same ceremony he received the Chairman's Lifetime Achievement award.

Walsh said the following about himself, "My job is to come in and move the story along. The stars don’t do the exposition …So I come on with Redford or Newman or Dustin or somebody, and I throw the ball to them, and they throw it back, and it starts to become that tennis match, back and forth, and that’s what makes the dynamics of the whole thing. And I’m driving the movie forward. I just try to sublimate myself and get in there and do it... [If] you’re casting something, and you’ve got 12 problems; if they’ve got me, they only have 11 problems."

Walsh died from a cardiac arrest in St. Albans, Vermont, on March 19, 2024, at the age of 88, three days before his 89th birthday.

Film

Television