Stage and Screen Character Actor Ned Beatty Dies at 83

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that stage and screen actor Ned Beatty has died at age 83.

Beatty appeared on Broadway twice, making his debut in 1968 in The Great White Hope. He returned in 2003 in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, for which he won a Drama Desk Award.

However, he was best known as one of the top character actors in film, particularly during the 1970s, and appeared in more than 160 films.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, and a Golden Globe Award.

Some of Beatty's most notable films included Deliverance (1972), Network (1976), Friendly Fire (1979), Hear My Song (1991), and Toy Story 3 (2010).

He saw success from roles including lawyer Delbert Reese in Nashville (1975), investigator Martin Dardis in All the President's Men (1976), undercover federal agent Bob Sweet in Silver Streak (1976), the priest, Father Edwards in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Lex Luthor's bumbling henchman Otis in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), as a millionaire's right-hand man in The Toy (1982), Pavel Borisov in The Fourth Protocol (1987), TV presenter Ernest Weller in Repossessed (1990), Rudy Ruettiger's father in Rudy (1993), attorney McNair in Just Cause (1995), Dexter Wilkins in Life (1999), the simple sheriff in Where the Red Fern Grows (2003), the corrupt Senator Charles F. Meachum in Shooter (2007), Congressman Doc Long in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), and in animated films as the voice of Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear in Toy Story 3 (2010) and Tortoise John in Rango (2011), among many others.