Well, crap. RIP Wilford Brimley

Tom Cruise definitely gave him what-for at the end of "The Firm."

 

First noticed him in The Electric Horseman - which also featured "alum" John Saxon in addition to the still breathing Redford, Fonda and Willie Nelson. Underrated movie. Features perhaps the greatest throwaway line of all time by Nelson.
But China Syndrome, The Thing..one of those actors who you saw on screen an instantly "knew" the character (or at least assumed, which made his role in The Firm so great. "The kind of intimate acts, oral and whatnot..."
RIP

 

I looked up "The Natural." Brimley was 49 years old when that movie came out. Man, throughout his whole career he looked like he was at least in his 60s. Nonetheless, RIP to a top-notch actor.

 

Think about Robert Duvall - losing his hair early (before he made it big) was probably the best thing for his career. See also Ed Harris.

 

He also was the top star for a couple of seasons on Our House, an NBC show in the mid-80s in which he played a grandfather who took in his grandkids and daughter-in-law.

He was 53 when the series started.

 

Forever changed the way we all say Die-A-Bee-Tus.

 

He had a small part in My Fellow Americans too, a damn funny and underrated film.

 

He was perfectly struck in The Firm.

 

Weren't he and Richard Farnsworth initially cast to play each others parts in The Natural? And honestly, it never looked like he was acting he nestled into his roles so well.

 

That's the superpower of a talented character actor. You don't look on them as a movie star playing a part the way you do a Robert Redford or a Tom Cruise. He's just some guy who is part of the story.