M. Emmet Walsh

M. Emmet Walsh
Walsh at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Michael Emmet Walsh (1935-03-22) March 22, 1935 Ogdensburg, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1969–present

Michael Emmet Walsh (born March 22, 1935) is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions.

Life and career

Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Katharine (née Sullivan) and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent.^[1] He is of Irish descent.^[2] He was raised in a rural area of Vermont,^[3] and attended college at Clarkson University.

He came to prominence in the 1978 crime film, Straight Time, in which he played a parole officer. He also had a memorable role as a crazed sniper in the Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. One of his most well-known roles was Bryant in Ridley Scott's cult classic Blade Runner. His most acclaimed performance, arguably, was the double-crossing private detective in Blood Simple (1984), for which he won the 1986 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Walsh made occasional guest appearances on Home Improvement as Tim Allen's father-in-law. In 1992 he appeared as a powerful U.S. Senator in David Winning's Killer Image, playing Michael Ironside's brother. In Christmas with the Kranks, he played one of Allen's neighbors. He also appeared as Alex Lembeck, a motorcycle cop who appointed himself as Sandy Stockton's (Sandy Duncan) chaperone/protector on The Sandy Duncan Show in 1972, and he appeared in an episode of the NBC dramatic series Gibbsville in 1976. In comedy Walsh played the cynical small town sportswriter Dickie Dunn in Paul Newman's iconic 1976 hockey comedy/drama Slap Shot.

According to Roger Ebert's Stanton-Walsh Rule, "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." Ebert later conceded that this rule was broken by 1999's Wild Wild West (Walsh) and Dream a Little Dream (Stanton).

Filmography

References

External links

• M. Emmet Walsh at the Internet Movie Database