RIP Ed Lauter

[PM2K]

Died this week from a rare form of lung cancer, usually associated with asbestos exposure.

Lauter has been a solid character actor for decades, playing the captain of the prison guards team in the Burt Reynolds classic The Longest Yard ('74) and going on to play cops, hoods and everyone in between. His face became better known than his name, and was the subject of much humor on the talk show circuit.

One of my fav Lauter roles is in Arnold Schwarzennegger's Raw Deal (1986), when he played a wise guy cop to Arnold's undercover agent battling the mob. Surveying the damage left by Arnold's final shoot out with the mobsters, he quips with a straight face "Looks like someone got extremely pissed off..." or words to that effect. Strangely, only Lauter could make me laugh at that line. All in the delivery, I guess.

RIP Mr. Lauter. You were always more than just a memorable face in the crowd, and the movies and TV were richer for it.