Prolific character actor Ned Beatty, who appeared in over 150 movies and stole scenes in films like Deliverance and Network, has died at the age of 83.
“Ned passed away from natural causes Sunday morning, surrounded by his family and loved ones,” said Beatty’s manager, Deborah Miller, in a statement.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937, Beatty began his career in the theater before landing his first major film role as the happy-go-lucky Bobby Trippie in 1972’s Deliverance, also starring Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds. He would soon go on to earn his one and only Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his performance as Arthur Jensen, the bombastic but shrewd chairman of the board of a television network whose rousing speech about the power and inevitability of of media inspires TV anchor Howard Beale played by Peter Finch. “There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon,” Beatty memorably shouts. “Those are the nations of the world today.”
Beatty continued to turn in memorable performances in smaller roles, yukking it up as Lex Luthor’s fumbling henchman Otis in Superman and Superman II opposite Gene Hackman, a racist sheriff in White Lightning, and the cuddly yet malevolent Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear in Toy Story 3.
Once touted as “the busiest actor in Hollywood” according to his agency, Beatty’s filmography includes All The President’s Men, Nashville, and Charlie Wilson’s War and many others. On the television, Beatty displayed his range playing Ed Connor, John Goodman’s father, on the hit sitcom Roseanne, as well as Detective Stan Bolander on Homicide: Life on the Street. Despite being in demand in Hollywood, Beatty still found time to return to the theater, earning critical acclaim and a Drama Desk award for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a revival of Tennessee Williams’s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. In 1999, Beatty married Sandra Johnson, and has 8 children from three previous marriages.
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