Rip Torn, who played the Garry Shandlings profane, fiercely loyal producer on HBOs The Larry Sanders Show, co-starred in the original Men in Black films and won a Tony during a long Broadway career, died today surrounded by family at his home in Lakeville, CT. He was 88.
The prolific Torn played the unstoppable and unflappable Artie on Larry Sanders, which aired from 1992-98 and followed the behind-the-scenes and onstage antics of a successful late-night network talk show. Along with scoring a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy in 1996, he was nominated for each of the shows six seasons.
The year Torn won his Emmy, he also had been up for Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his turn on CBS Chicago Hope. In 2008, he earned his ninth and final Emmy nom, for his recurring role as Don Geiss on NBCs 30 Rock. His first was for The Atlanta Child Murders in 1985.
Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas, the versatile actor once said, “Play drama as comedy and comedy as drama.” He claimed that was his secret weapon.
Torn also earned an Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Cross Creek (1983) and a Best Featured Actor in a Play Tony Award in 1960 for Elia Kazans staging of Tennessee Williams Sweet Bird of Youth. He would reprise that role as Tom Finlay Jr. in the 1962 feature adaptation directed by Richard Brooks that also starred Paul Newman and Geraldine Page. Torn would marry Page in 1963.
Amassing nearly 200 film and TV credits during a seven-decade career — and 10 more on Broadway — Torn likely is best known to younger moviegoers as Agent Zed in the smash 1997 Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi comedy Men in Black and its 2002 sequel. He memorably also played tough-love Coach Patches OHoulihan in the 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which starred Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller.
All that was a just a taste of Torns career, which began in the mid-1950s with guest roles in such TV series as Kraft Theatre, Pursuit, The Restless Gun, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Playhouse 90. He continued to work on the big and small screens throughout his career, appearing in dozens of popular TV shows including The Untouchables, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Rawhide and Combat! during the 60s. He appeared in Norman Jewisons The Cincinnati Kid (1965), which starred Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Karl Malden and Tuesday Weld.
Torn mostly worked in film during the 1970s, including a role opposite David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth (19Read More – Source
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