People
M. Emmet Walsh
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Michael Emmet Walsh (March 22, 1935 – March 19, 2024) was an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 films and television series, including supporting roles in dozens of major studio features of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in Blood Simple (1984), the Coen Brothers' first film for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. He also appeared in The Jerk (1979), Ordinary People (1980), Blade Runner (1982), Wild Wild West (1999), and The Iron Giant (1999). His final films included Knives Out (2019) and Brothers (2024).
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
Blade Runner
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Iron Giant
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Romeo + Juliet
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Knives Out
As Mr. Proofroc
My Best Friend's Wedding
As Joe O'Neal
Blood Simple
As Private Detective
A Time to Kill
As Willard Tyrell Bass (uncredited)
A Little White Lie
As Arthur Baldwin
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
The Discs That Changed How Britain Watched
When DVD landed in Britain in 1997 it promised cinema in your living room. The discs that followed rewired what collectors expected from a film at home.
10 films
The Weight of the Cape: Inheriting a Legacy You Never Asked For
Before the multiverse had a use for her, Kara Zor-El's first outing wasn't framed as destiny, it was framed as a mistake to fix. She loses the Omegahedron, the...
8 films
The Verse Will Outlive the Stage
Eight films that take Shakespeare's words into new weather, new cities and new blood, proving the plays were never meant to stay indoors.
8 films
The Art of Listening
From the whisper of a surveillance tape to the roar of a wartime beach, these eight films prove that sound is not just heard, it is felt. A chain of masterpiece...
7 films
The Mind's Eye: Crime Films of Obsession and Interiority
From a detective's haunted pursuit to a killer's fractured psyche, this chain traces cinema's most intimate crime stories, where the real action happens inside...
8 films
20 Home Video Releases Every Film Obsessive Should Own
There was a brief, glorious period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when buying a film on home video felt less like acquiring a product and more like being han...
20 films
The DVDs That Changed Everything
In the autumn of 1997, the first DVD players reached British shops, and the format arrived with a sales pitch that sounded too good to be true: cinema in your l...
13 films
Topics
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Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Acted
A Little White Lie
2023 · Arthur Baldwin
Knives Out
2019 · Mr. Proofroc
Calvary
2014 · The Writer
Youth in Revolt
2009 · Mr. Saunders
Man in the Chair
2007 · Mickey Hopkins
Christmas with the Kranks
2004 · Walt Scheel
The Iron Giant
1999 · Earl Stutz (voice)
Wild Wild West
1999 · Coleman
My Best Friend's Wedding
1997 · Joe O'Neal
Romeo + Juliet
1996 · Apothecary
A Time to Kill
1996 · Willard Tyrell Bass (uncredited)
The Glass Shield
1994 · Det. Jesse Hall
Cops & Robbersons
1994 · Captain Ted Corbett (uncredited)
Catch Me... If You Can
1989 · Johnny Phatmun
Sunset
1988 · Chief Marvin Dibner
The Milagro Beanfield War
1988 · Governor
Harry and the Hendersons
1987 · George Henderson Sr.
Critters
1986 · Harv
Fletch
1985 · Dr. Joseph Dolan
Blood Simple
1985 · Private Detective
Blade Runner
1982 · Bryant
Reds
1981 · Speaker at Liberal Club
East of Eden
1981 · Sheriff Horace Quinn
Ordinary People
1980 · Swim Coach
The Jerk
1979 · Madman
No Other Love
1979 · DeFranco
Airport '77
1977 · Dr. Williams
The Gambler
1974 · Las Vegas Gambler
What's Up, Doc?
1972 · Arresting Officer