Who was actor M. Emmet Walsh and what movies did he appear in?
BELOVED character actor M. Emmet Walsh has tragically passed away after suffering cardiac arrest.
But who was he? What films do you know him from? And what was his net worth? We have everything you need to know about the late star.
Who was M. Emmet Walsh?
Michael Emmet Walsh was born in New York on March 22, 1935, to a traditional family.
The budding young star was raised in rural Swanton, Vermont, by a U.S. customs agent for a father and a housewife and homemaker for a mother.
After graduating from private school in New Hampshire, his father sent him to study business administration at Clarkson College of Technology in New York.
It was later made well known that Walsh was anything but a good student, the actor barely passed his classes, and spent the majority of his time appearing in student plays.
Although he graduated in 1958, the college dean called him to inform him that the school considered him to be one of the least-promising graduates they had ever seen.
Knowing he couldn’t bear to work in an office, Walsh disobeyed his father and enrolled in a short program at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York.
His two year course landed him a job as a prop man in the Bucks County Playhouse, and a decade of appearing in commercials.
He finally made his Broadway debut with a very small role in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? in 1969, and went on to have a handful of background roles in some of the most popular movies of the era.
Walsh quickly became an audience favourite for his long list of despicable performances in supporting roles.
Film critic Roger Ebert created the “Stanton-Walsh Rule” which supposed that a film that didn’t feature Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role is immediately a bad film.
How did M. Emmet Walsh die?
M. Emmet Walsh tragically passed away on March 20, 2024.
His manager Sandy Joseph revealed the beloved actor died at Kerbs Memorial Hospital in St. Albans, Vermont.
The actor was 88, and leaves no immediate survivors.
Walsh never married, saying in a 2015 interview that he couldn’t marry another actor for fear of “competition”, while a “civilian” would never understand him.
He added: “Besides, I never met a woman who was stupid enough to think I was a great catch!”
His remaining family included a niece, a nephew, and two grandnephews.
What did M. Emmet Walsh star in?
After his Broadway debut in Does A Tiger Wear a Necktie, Walsh went on to have supporting roles in major films like Midnight Cowboy, Alice’s Restaurant, Little Big Man, and Serpico.
He broke through into a bigger role playing the sportswriter Dickie Dunn in the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot, and his career only continued to spiral from here.
He went on to play a crazed sniper in The Jerk, 1979, and played the role of Captain Harry Bryant alongside Harrison Ford in Blade Runner, 1982.
But his big break came with the chance to play the leading role in the Coen Brothers’ debut film, Blood Simple, in 1984.
Walsh also starred in Critters, Back to School and Willdcats in 1986, in The Milagro Beanfield War in 1988, in Bitter Harvest in 1993, Camp Nowhere in 1994 – just to name a few.
During his six-decade career, he starred in other classics such as Silkwood, Romeo + Juliet, and Christmas With The Kranks.
His extensive career saw him landing credits in 119 films and 250 TV productions – including the voice of the owl in the children’s cartoon Adventure Time.
He voiced Ken Burns‘ 1990 documentary The Civil War, and guest starred in The Bob Newhart Show, the X-files, NYPD Blue, Fraiser, and many more.
All whilst he continued to act on regional theatre stages throughout the world, including his critically acclaimed performance in Sam Shepard’s Buried Child in London’s National Theatre.
More recently, he portrayed the elderly security guard Mr Proofroc in the 2019 Daniel Craig film Knives Out.
The deceased actor is also set to star in the yet to be released Western film Outlaw Posse – which also stars Whoopi Goldberg.
What was M. Emmet Walsh’s net worth?
It has been estimated that with Walsh’s long legacy in the acting world, the star has an accumulated net worth of $2 million.
Although, he maintained that he was never in film or television for the money.
He was once recorded as saying: “I approach each job thinking it might be my last so it better be the best work possible.
“I want to be remembered as a working actor. I’m being paid for what I’d do for nothing.”