Veteran actor M Emmet Walsh, who starred in Blade Runner and Knives Out, has died aged 88.
The American star died from a cardiac arrest on Tuesday at Kerbs Memorial Hospital in St Albans, Vermont, a statement from his manager confirmed.
During his six-decade career, Walsh played a variety of roles, including Harrison Ford’s LAPD boss in Sir Ridley Scott’s 1982 Blade Runner.
He played an unscrupulous private detective in Ethan Coen’s Blood Simple two years later, for which he would win the first Film Independent Spirit Award for best male lead.
He also played Dermot Mulroney’s father in My Best Friend’s Wedding, which also starred Julia Roberts, and Dustin Hoffman’s belligerent parole officer in Straight Time.
Film critic Roger Ebert once observed that “no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad”.
Born Michael Emmet Walsh, his body of work includes 119 films and 250 TV productions, with recent roles including playing an elderly security guard in Rian Johnson’s 2019 murder-mystery comedy Knives Out, which starred Daniel Craig.
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Johnson was among those paying tribute, writing on X: “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.”
