English character actor Donald Moffat has died at the age of 87. He reportedly passed away at his home in Sleepy Hollow, New York due to complications from a recent stroke.
Moffat’s career spanned close to fifty years including eighty stage plays, seventy movies and at least sixty TV series. He had a habit of playing authority figures including the then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in “The Right Stuff,” the corrupt U.S. President in the Jack Ryan film “Clear and Present Danger,” and the head of the Antarctic station in John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. He also played the father of Alison Janney’s CJ in “The West Wing” TV series.
Other notable films included “License to Kill,” “Popeye,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” “Regarding Henry,” “The Terminal Man,” “Earthquake,” “Babe Ruth,” “The Call of the Wild,” “Far North,” “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “Class Action,” “The Evening Star,” “R.P.M.,” “Rachel, Rachel,” “Housesitter,” and “Cookie’s Fortune”.
His TV work included the original “The Bourne Identity” mini-series, “Tales of the City,” “Logan’s Run,” “Dallas,” “L.A. Law,” “The Word,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Waltons,” “Gunsmoke,” “Ironside” and “Bonanza”.
Moffat essentially retired from screen acting over a decade ago and is survived by his wife, four children and ten grandchildren.
Source: The New York Times
