dead at 85

Brimley's claim to fame was a great big broom of a moustache that gave him a Teddy Roosevelt look backed by his crisp cracker barrel good ol' boy delivery.

I recall Wilford Brimley in a strong run of roles that starts with "The China Syndrome"(1979), the anti-nuke movie where once Jack Lemmon's whistleblower dies, Brimley's "unnoticed support" takes on Lemmon's hero role -- and everybody remembered him.

Two years later, in 1981, Brimley got his best role ever, I believe -- he showed up only at the end of a movie called "Absence of Malice" as a good ol' boy federal prosecutor who sits in a conference room and cleans the clocks and settles the hash of a roomful of corrupt politicians. All that star Paul Newman has to do is sit there looking incredibly handsome in a dark blue suit and tie and watch as he gives Brimley the scene. Brimley says things like "The last time there were this many leaks, Noah went and built himself a BOAT!" and "Now if you don't want to talk to me, my deputy there has a pocketful of supeenies and he can make ya talk." (Oh, Newman gets to say a few dramatic things, but Brimley owns the scene.)

The next year, in 1982, Brimley was one of the unfortunate male souls stuck in the Anartic with Kurt Russell and "The Thing" -- and the very memorable thing was that Wilford shaved his moustache and ended up looking...pretty dour and mean and borderline ugly. Not to mention...maybe he IS the Thing?

In 1984, the stout and short Brimley lent himself to a "double act" with thin and lanky Richard Farnworth as they played a Mutt-and-Jeff team of 30's baseball team mangers in Redford's The Natural. There comes a scene near the end where Redford stands smiling in the gleaming sun -- nice to Brimley as can be -- and Brimley returns the favor with a "from the heart" salute to "the best baseball player I've ever seen. Play ball."

1985: Cocoon. A movie that dealt forthrightly with exactly HOW the fountain of youth turns old men young again. Brimley asks his friends, if they , too - have the erections of young men: "Mine's blue steel," he intones before surprising his attractive elderly wife in the shower with "some candy." Go, Wilford.

As with Brian Dennehy(who died a few months ago and worked in the same era as Brimley), I see where Wilford Brimley did many more TV shows and movies than that "core" group above, most of which I never saw(as with Dennehy's output). And Brimley became even more famous as the Quaker Oats pitchman and a spokesperson for diabetes treatment(he had it, though 85 is a pretty long to live.)

But one post-1990 Wilford Brimley performance sticks with me: in the 1993 legal thriller The Firm, with Tom Cruise as the young lawyer lead, Brimley appears as the firm's "security man" who is really the Mafia's overseeing of ...killing people who might give away the firm's real business. Brimley uses his good ol' boy matter-of-factness for evil, not for good(blackmailing Cruise with photos of a set-up seduction) and gets beaten unconscious by Cruise with his briefcase at the end. To death? We never really knew.

Wilford Brimley. A famous character actor of the generation that came AFTER Martin Balsam. Instantly recognizable in face and voice. And these memorable film roles(at least): The China Syndrome, The Thing, The Natural, Cocoon, The Firm and --(above all, to me) -- Absence of Malice.

RIP.