Badmovies.org Forum

M. Emmet Walsh, a US character actor whose filmography includes classics like Blood Simple and Blade Runner, has died at age 88, his manager confirmed on Wednesday (20 March).

His longtime manager Sandy Joseph said Walsh died from cardiac arrest on Tuesday at a hospital in St. Albans, Vermont, his home state.

Widely beloved by critics and filmgoers alike, M. Emmet Walsh received high praise from famed critic Roger Ebert, who once said that “no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.”

Walsh was often the most memorable part of any movie he starred in, playing good old boys with bad intentions – like one of his rare leading roles as a crooked Texas private detective in the Coen brothers’ first film, the 1984 neo-noir Blood Simple.

Expand article logo  Continue reading
Joel and Ethan Coen said they wrote the part for Walsh, who went on to win the first Film Independent Spirit Award for best male lead for the role.

Walsh played a crazed sniper in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk and a prostate-examining doctor in the 1985 Chevy Chase film Fletch.

In 1982’s Blade Runner, Walsh plays a shrewd police captain who sets retired cop Harrison Ford on a hunt for cyborgs. He said the film was gruelling and difficult to make with perfectionist director Ridley Scott.