Ned Beatty, who made an indelible first impression in Deliverance before turning in noteworthy efforts in Nashville, Network and Homicide: Life on the Street as one of the most respected character actors of his time, has died.
On television, Ned Beatty was at his best as Det.
Beatty had an excellent basso profundo singing voice, and his goal as a teenager was to have a career in the musical theater.
Beatty said he doubted he was going to get a part in the picture when he sat down with Boorman, his assistant and their wives for lunch in New York.
Deliverance, of course, has become infamous for its uncut 10-minute male rape sequence in which Beatty, as pudgy businessman Bobby Trippe, is the victim.
Beatty, who often played Southern yokels and was at ease doing comedy as well as drama, never seemed to harbor any regrets about not having more leading-man roles.
Ned Beatty was born on July 6, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a traveling salesman who pitched a system of fire hydrants to officials in small towns.
When he was about 19, he got a singing part in the play Wilderness Road.
The experience got him hooked on acting, and in 1957 he joined the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va.
That was followed by a stint in Washington with the Arena Stage Company, where he appeared in the original production of The Great White Hope, starring James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander.
If they see you and they know that you’re a bad guy, they arrest you.