This is one of my very favorite actors.
Vickie Rolison
Actor Wilford Brimley Dead at Age 85: 'He Was One of a Kind'
Evan Agostini / AP
Actor Wilford Brimley , who worked his way up from stunt performer to star of
film
such as “Cocoon” and “The Natural,” has died. He was 85. Brimley’s manager,
Lynda
Bensky, said the actor, pictured in a 2009 file photo, died Saturday morning in
a
Utah hospital.
Published August 1, 2020 at 9:18pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from movie stunt
rider
to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace,
to
a range of films that included “Cocoon,” “The Natural” and “The Firm,” has died.
He was 85.
Brimley’s manager Lynda Bensky said the actor died Saturday morning in a Utah
hospital.
He was on dialysis and had several medical ailments, she said.
The mustached Brimley was a familiar face for a number of roles, often playing
characters
like his grizzled baseball manager in “The Natural” opposite Robert Redford’s
bad-luck
phenomenon. He also worked with Redford in “Brubaker” and “The Electric
Horseman.”
Brimley’s best-known work was in “Cocoon,” in which he was part of a group of
seniors
who discover an alien pod that rejuvenates them. The 1985 Ron Howard film won
two
Oscars, including a supporting actor honor for Don Ameche.
Brimley also starred in “Cocoon: The Return,” a 1988 sequel.
For years he was pitchman for Quaker Oats and in recent years appeared in a
series
of diabetes spots that turned him at one point into a social media sensation.
“Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust,” Bensky said in a statement. “He
said
what he meant and he meant what he said. He had a tough exterior and a tender
heart.
I’m sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend’s wonderful stories. He was
one
of a kind.”
Barbara Hershey, who met Brimley on 1995′s “Last of the Dogmen,” called him “a
wonderful
man and actor. … He always made me laugh.”
Though never nominated for an Oscar or Emmy Award, Brimley amassed an impressive
list of credits. In 1993’s John Grisham adaptation “The Firm,” Brimley starred
opposite
Tom Cruise as a tough-nosed investigator who deployed ruthless tactics to keep
his
law firm’s secrets safe.
John Woo, who directed Brimley as Uncle Douvee in 1993′s “Hard Target,” told The
Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that the part was “the main great thing from the
film.
I was overjoyed making those scenes and especially working with Wilford
Brimley.”
A Utah native who grew up around horses, Brimley spent two decades traveling
around
the West and working at ranches and race tracks. He drifted into movie work
during
the 1960s, riding in such films as “True Grit,” and appearing in TV series such
as
“Gunsmoke.”
He forged a friendship with Robert Duvall, who encouraged him to seek more
prominent
acting roles, according to a biography prepared by Turner Classic Movies.
Brimley, who never trained as an actor, saw his career take off after he won an
important
role as a nuclear power plant engineer in “The China Syndrome.”
“Training? I’ve never been to acting classes, but I’ve had 50 years of
training,”
he said in a 1984 Associated Press interview. “My years as an extra were good
background
for learning about camera techniques and so forth. I was lucky to have had that
experience;
a lot of newcomers don’t.”
“Basically my method is to be honest,” Brimley said told AP. “The camera
photographs
the truth — not what I want it to see, but what it sees. The truth.”
Brimley had a recurring role as a blacksmith on “The Waltons” and the 1980s
prime-time
series “Our House.”
Another side of the actor was his love of jazz. As a vocalist, he made albums
including
“This Time the Dream’s On Me” and “Wilford Brimley with the Jeff Hamilton Trio.”
In 1998, he opposed an Arizona referendum to ban cockfighting, saying that he
was
“trying to protect a lifestyle of freedom and choice for my grandchildren.”
In recent years, Brimley’s pitchwork for Liberty Medical had turned him into an
internet
sensation for his drawn out pronunciation of diabetes as “diabeetus.” He owned
the
pronunciation in a tweet that drew hundreds of thousands of likes earlier this
year.
Brimley is survived by his wife Beverly and three sons.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
