Legendary 'Blade Runner' Actor Dies at 88

Meghan Roos
·3 min read
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Actor M. Emmet Walsh arrives at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker Grant and Nominee Brunch at BOA Steakhouse on January 15, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

M. Emmet Walsh, the character actor known for his memorable performances in The Jerk, Blade Runner, My Best Friend’s Wedding and more than 50 years worth of other roles on film and television, has died. He was 88.

Walsh died of cardiac arrest while at a hospital in St. Albans, Vermont, on Tuesday, March 19, his manager told Deadline.

Walsh began his professional acting career in the late 1960s on television and through small roles in films like Alice’s Restaurant and Midnight Cowboy. He worked with the Cohen brothers on 1984’s Blood Simple as Loren Visser, a role that earned him the Best Actor award at the inaugural Independent Spirit Awards.

Walsh went on to embrace roles in 1987’s Raising Arizona and 1989’s Catch Me If You Can, as well as guest roles on television shows such as East of Eden, Little House on the Prairie and Home Improvement, among many others. Younger film fans will remember Walsh as Dermot Mulroney’s father in My Best Friend’s Wedding, the cranky neighbor in Christmas with the Kranks, or even as Grandaddy Roy Gemstone in the comedy crime show The Righteous Gemstones.

Mulroney recognized Walsh’s passing with a screenshot of the late actor taken from their 1997 film together. Mulroney shared the screenshot on his March 20 Instagram Story, identifying Walsh as “my dad in MBFW” and adding a broken heart emoji.

Rob Schneider, who directed Walsh and starred alongside him in 2007’s Big Stan, also paid tribute to Walsh as “one of the finest actors and human beings I have ever known” in a March 20 post on X.

“I remember all his wonderful stories and how generous he was with the wisdom and acting knowledge he had accumulated in his 119 movies he made in his career,” Schneider tweeted. “God bless you, my friend.”

Rian Johnson, who directed Walsh in one of his more recent performances for 2019’s Knives Out, also remembered the actor fondly on X, writing: “Emmet came to set with 2 things: a copy of his credits, which was a small-type single spaced double column list of modern classics that filled a whole page, & two-dollar bills which he passed out to the entire crew. ’Don’t spend it and you’ll never be broke.’ Absolute legend.”

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