- J. T. Walsh
Infobox actor
caption =
birthname = James Thomas Patrick Walsh
birthdate =September 28 ,1943
birthplace =San Francisco, California
deathdate= death date and age|1998|2|27|1943|9|28
deathplace=San Diego, California James Thomas Patrick Walsh (
September 28 ,1943 –February 27 ,1998 ) was an Americancharacter actor known for his roles as "quietly sinister white-collar sleazeballs" (quote fromLeonard Maltin ) in numerous featurefilm s and "everybody's favorite scumbag" from "Playboy Magazine ".Biography
Early life
Walsh was born in
San Francisco, California . He had three siblings, Christopher, Patricia, and Mary. After studying atClongowes Wood College inIreland , Walsh attended theUniversity of Rhode Island , where he starred in many collegetheater productions. In 1974, he was discovered by a director and began working inoff-Broadway shows.Career
Walsh did not appear in feature films until 1983, when he had a minor role in "Eddy Macon's Run". Over the next 15 years, he played in over 50 feature films, increasingly taking the bad guy role for which he is so well known, e.g. the loudly irascible Sgt. Maj. Dickerson in "
Good Morning, Vietnam ". Walsh had one of his bestfact|date=November 2007 roles as Wayne in "Red Rock West " (1992). In his last year, he starred in "Hidden Agenda", "Pleasantville", and "The Negotiator". All three of those movies were dedicated to his memory, after he died from a heart attack on February 27, 1998. In addition,Jack Nicholson dedicated his Academy Award for "As Good as It Gets " to the memory of Walsh, with whom he had starred in "A Few Good Men " and "Hoffa " in 1992. The 1997 thriller "Breakdown" featured Walsh as the villainous truck driver, which raised his profile to movie audiences. Walsh wanted to show his range as an actor and play good guy parts despite being typecast as a villain. Although he did get to play a few decent people such as the White House Chief of Staff in "Outbreak" and Chester Van Damme in "Sniper," even those roles had Walsh putting an amoral streak within his characters. Walsh played a member ofMajestic-12 in the 1996-1997 sci-fi/drama television series "Dark Skies ".Personal life
Walsh was 54 when he died from a heart attack in
La Mesa, California on February 27, 1998. Walsh, father of actor John West, was the inspiration forFametracker 's [http://www.fametracker.com/hey_its_that_guy/ The J.T. Walsh Memorial "Hey! It's That Guy!"] feature oncharacter actor s.External links
*imdb name|id=0000687|name=J. T. Walsh
* [http://www.marcseifer.com/otherstuff/JimWalshReflection.pdf Reflection on J. T. Walsh] (PDF)
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2004/08/26/j_t_walsh/ "Oh, that guy"] Salon.com profile of Walsh
* [http://www.bubblegun.com/features/probewalsh.html Bubblegum interview]
*Find A Grave|id=4707
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