Wilford Brimley, ‘Cocoon’ Star and Quaker Oats Pitchman, Is Dead at 85
Recognizable by his walrus mustache, the actor specialized in playing cantankerous characters in “Absence of Malice,” “The Natural” and other films.
He was number 238 on the list.
Wilford Brimley, a portly actor with a walrus mustache who found his niche playing cantankerous coots in “Absence of Malice,” “The Natural,” “Cocoon” and other films, died on Saturday in a hospital in St. George, Utah. He was 85.
He had been sick for two months with a kidney ailment, his agent, Lynda Bensky, said.
Mr. Brimley had played the Walton Mountain resident Horace Brimley in a recurring role on the television series “The Waltons” when Michael Douglas, the producer of “The China Syndrome,” gave him his breakthrough role: Ted Spindler, an assistant engineer at a nuclear plant.
In the film’s climactic scene, in which he is being interviewed by a crusading television reporter played by Jane Fonda, Mr. Brimley delivered an impassioned defense of his boss (Jack Lemmon), who had precipitated a crisis to draw public attention to defects at the plant.
In an article for The New York Times singling out Mr. Brimley as a talent to watch, Janet Maslin called him “the mustachioed man who very nearly steals the ending of ‘China Syndrome’ from Jane Fonda.”
Mr. Brimley followed up with a small but memorable performance as a pugnacious assistant U.S. attorney in “Absence of Malice” and with supporting roles in “The Natural,” as the put-upon manager of a losing baseball team, and “The Firm,” in which he played the sinister head of security at an unsavory law firm.
In Ron Howard’s 1985 fantasy film “Cocoon,” Mr. Brimley delivered one of his most engaging performances, as a Florida retiree who, with Don Ameche and Hume Cronyn, regains his youth after swimming in a magic pool.
“Wilford’s a testy guy, not an easy guy to work with all the time, but he has great instincts,” Mr. Howard told The Times in 1985. “Many of his scenes were totally improvised.”
In the 1980s and 1990s Mr. Brimley was a television fixture as a spokesman for Quaker Oats, gruffly telling viewers to eat the cereal because “it’s the right thing to do,” and Liberty Medical, a company selling diabetes-testing supplies. Mr. Brimley learned that he had the disease in the late 1970s.
When interviewed, Mr. Brimley played down his talent; he described himself as “just a guy, just a feller” to The Powell Tribune of Wyoming in 2014. “I can’t talk about acting,” he said. “I don’t know anything about it. I was just lucky enough to get hired.”
Anthony Wilford Brimley was born on Sept. 27, 1934, in Salt Lake City. His father, a real estate broker, sold the family farm in 1939 and moved his family to Santa Monica, Calif.
Tony, as he was known, dropped out of school at 14 and worked as a cowboy in Idaho, Nevada and Arizona before enlisting in the Marine Corps, which sent him to the Aleutian Islands. After leaving the service, he worked as a ranch hand, wrangler and blacksmith. Briefly, he was a bodyguard for Howard Hughes.
He began shoeing horses for television and film westerns, and gradually took nonspeaking roles on horseback. He appeared as a stuntman in “Bandolero!,” in an uncredited role in “True Grit” and as a blacksmith in the television series “Kung Fu.”
The film’s director, Ron Howard, said of Mr. Brimley: “Wilford’s a testy guy, not an easy guy to work with all the time, but he has great instincts. Many of his scenes were totally improvised.”
After “The China Syndrome,” he worked steadily. He played Harry, the former manager of the country singer played by Robert Duvall, in “Tender Mercies,” and the eccentric tycoon Bradley Tozer in the Tom Selleck adventure film “High Road to China,” before returning to the role of Ben Luckett in “Cocoon: The Return.”
From 1986 to 1988 he had a starring role as Gus Witherspoon, the opinionated but lovable grandfather in the NBC series “Our House,” yet again confounding the usual Hollywood aging process by portraying, in his early 50s, a character who was 65.
“I’m never the leading man,” he told The Dallas Morning News in 1993. “I never get the girl. And I never get to take my shirt off. I started by playing fathers to guys who were 25 years older than I was.”
In part because of his television commercials, Mr. Brimley made the transition from actor to comic source material. John Goodman did a parody of his diabetes commercial on “Saturday Night Live,” and in 1997 he appeared in a cameo role on “Seinfeld” as the short-tempered postmaster general, Henry Atkins.
He had a pleasant singing voice and recorded several albums of jazz standards, including “This Time the Dream’s on Me” and “Wilford Brimley With the Jeff Hamilton Trio.”
Mr. Brimley’s first wife, the former Lynne Bagley, died in 2000. He is survived by his wife, Beverly, and three sons from his first marriage, James, John and William. Another son, Lawrence, died in infancy. Complete information on other survivors was not immediately available.
As Mr. Howard noted, Mr. Brimley came by his cussedness naturally. In “Miracles and Mercies,” a documentary about the making of “Tender Mercies,” Mr. Duvall recalled a set-to between Mr. Brimley and the director Bruce Beresford, who had made a suggestion about how Mr. Brimley might play the role of Harry.
“Now, look, let me tell you something — I’m Harry,” he recalled Mr. Brimley telling Mr. Beresford. “Harry’s not over there, Harry’s not over here. Until you fire me or get another actor, I’m Harry, and whatever I do is fine ’cause I’m Harry.”
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
1968 Bandolero! Stuntman (uncredited)
1969 True Grit Minor Role Uncredited
1971 Lawman Marc Corman Uncredited
1979 The China Syndrome Ted Spindler
1979 The Electric Horseman Farmer
1980 Brubaker Rogers
1980 Borderline USBP Agent Scooter Jackson
1981 Absence of Malice Assistant U.S. Attorney General James A. Wells
1982 Death Valley The Sheriff
1982 The Thing Dr. Blair
1983 Tender Mercies Harry
1983 10 to Midnight Captain Malone
1983 High Road to China Bradley Tozer
1983 Tough Enough Bill Long
1984 Harry & Son Tom Keach
1984 The Hotel New Hampshire Iowa Bob
1984 The Stone Boy George Jansen
1984 The Natural Pop Fisher
1984 Country Otis
1984 Terror in the Aisles Doctor Blair Archive footage
1985 Cocoon Benjamin 'Ben' Luckett
1985 Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins Agency Director Harold Smith
1986 Jackals Sheriff Mitchell
1986 Shadows on the Wall Floyd Buckman
1987 End of the Line Will Haney
1988 Cocoon: The Return Benjamin 'Ben' Luckett
1990 Eternity King/Eric
1992 Where the Red Fern Grows: Part II Grandpa Will Direct-to-video
1993 The Firm William Devasher
1993 Hard Target Uncle Douvee
1994 Heaven Sent Al (Security Guard)
1995 Mutant Species Devro
1995 Last of the Dogmen Narrator Uncredited
1996 My Fellow Americans Joe Hollis
1997 In & Out Frank Brackett
1997 Lunker Lake The Storyteller
1998 Chapter Perfect Chief Hawkins
1998 Progeny Dr. David Wetherly
1998 A Place to Grow Jake
1998 Summer of the Monkeys Grandpa Sam Ferrans
2000 Comanche Doctor
2001 Brigham City Stu
2001 PC and the Web
2002 Resurrection Mary Morty
2003 The Road Home Coach Weaver
2009 The Path of the Wind Harry Caldwell
2009 Did You Hear About the Morgans? Earl Granger
2016 Timber the Treasure Dog Hawk Jones
2017 I Believe Pastor Final film role
Television
Year Title Role Notes Ref.
1974–1977 The Waltons Horace Brimley 8 episodes
1975 Kung Fu Blacksmith Episode: "One Step to Darkness"; as A. Wilford Brimley
1976–1977 The Oregon Trail Ludlow Episodes: Pilot, "Hard Ride Home"; as A. Wilford Brimley
1979 The Wild Wild West Revisited President Grover Cleveland Television film; as Wilford A. Brimley
1980 Amber Waves Pete Alberts Television film
1980 Roughnecks Willie Clayton Television film
1980 Rodeo Girl Bingo Gibbs Television film
1981 The Big Black Pill Wally Haskell Television film; aka. Joe Dancer
1985 Murder in Space Dr. Andrew McCallister Television film
1985 Ewoks: The Battle for Endor Noa Television film
1986 Thompson's Last Run Red Haines Television film
1986 Act of Vengeance Tony Boyle Television film
1986–1988 Our House Gus Witherspoon
1989 Billy the Kid Gov. Lew Wallace Television series
1991 Blood River U.S. Marshal Winston Patrick Culler Television film
1992 The Boys of Twilight Deputy Bill Huntoon Television series
1995 Walker, Texas Ranger Burt Mueller Episode: "War Zone"
1995 Op Center Admiral Troy Davis
1995 The Good Old Boys C.C. Tarpley Television film
1997 Seinfeld United States Postmaster General Henry Atkins Episode: "The Junk Mail"
2001 Crossfire Trail Joe Gill Television film
2001 The Ballad of Lucy Whipple Deputy Sheriff Ambrose Scraggs Television film
2011 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Guest Late night talk show
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