J. T. Walsh should not be confused with J. D. Walsh (actor).
| J.T. Walsh | |
| Birth Name: | James Thomas Patrick Walsh |
| Birth Date: | 28 September 1943 |
| Birth Place: | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Death Place: | La Mesa, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1975–1998 |
| Children: | 1 |
| Alma Mater: | University of Tübingen University of Rhode Island |
James Thomas Patrick Walsh (September 28, 1943 – February 27, 1998) was an American character actor. His many films include: Tin Men (1987), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Hoffa (1992), Nixon (1995), Sling Blade (1996), Breakdown (1997) and Pleasantville (1998).[1]
Walsh was born in San Francisco, California. He had three siblings: Christopher, Patricia, and Mary.[2] From 1948 until 1962, the family lived in West Germany, where Walsh's father was stationed; they lived in Munich for seven years before moving to Stuttgart.
Walsh and his brother studied at Clongowes Wood College (a Jesuit school in Ireland) from 1955 until 1961. He then attended the University of Tübingen (Walsh spoke fluent German) for a year before his father died of a brain tumour, after which he and his family moved back to the United States, settling in his mother's native Rhode Island. He completed his studies at the University of Rhode Island, where he majored in sociology and starred in many college theater productions. During this time, he was also active in SDS demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
After graduating from college in 1967, Walsh worked briefly as a VISTA volunteer in Newport, Rhode Island organizing tenants for the United Tenant Organizations of Rhode Island (UTO) before resigning to pursue his acting career. Prior to becoming an actor, he also worked as a barman, an encyclopedia salesman, a junior high school teacher, a gymnasium equipment salesman, and a reporter. In 1974, he was discovered by a theater director and began working in off-Broadway shows, where he began using the initials "J. T." to avoid confusion with another stage actor named James Walsh.[3]
On stage, Walsh received critical acclaim for his performance as John Williamson in the 1984 U.S. premiere of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross in Chicago and subsequently on Broadway. He did not appear in films until 1983, when he had a minor role in Eddie Macon's Run. Over the next 15 years, he appeared in over 50 feature films, increasingly taking the villain role for which he is well known, such as Sergeant Major Dickerson in Good Morning, Vietnam. On television, he again portrayed an evil character, prison warden Brodeur on the 1995 X-Files episode "The List".
Wishing to show his range as an actor and play good guys, despite being typecast as a villain, he played relatively decent characters in Outbreak and Sniper, and also played the rather sympathetic Marine Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Markinson in A Few Good Men. He played a member of Majestic 12 in the 1996 sci-fi drama series Dark Skies. Walsh notably played real people in three films: journalist Bob Woodward in Wired, Teamsters president Frank Fitzsimmons in Hoffa, and Richard Nixon's domestic advisor John Ehrlichman in Nixon. He was fired from Loose Cannons after completing two days of filming because his co-star Dan Aykroyd had learned of Walsh's involvement in Wired, a biopic of Aykroyd's friend John Belushi, to which Aykroyd was hostile.
The 1997 thriller Breakdown, which featured Walsh as villainous truck driver Warren "Red" Barr, was his last starring film released during his lifetime. In his final year of life, Walsh starred in Hidden Agenda, Pleasantville, and The Negotiator, all of which were dedicated to his memory.[4]
He married Susan West in 1972 and they had a son, John Alan West, who works in film production under the name John West. They divorced in 1982. Walsh lived in Encino, Los Angeles. He was a lifelong Democrat, and an avid reader with a strong interest in metaphysics.
A heavy smoker, Walsh died of a heart attack in the hospital in La Mesa, California, on February 27, 1998, at the age of 54, after feeling ill and collapsing at the Optimum Health Institute in Lemon Grove. According to author Marc Seifer, for whom Walsh had narrated a documentary, just a few weeks earlier, Walsh had experienced chest pains and had an EKG test done that resulted in a misdiagnosis.[5]
Jack Nicholson, who acted with Walsh in A Few Good Men and Hoffa, dedicated his Best Actor Oscar for As Good as It Gets to him.[6]
In his tribute to Walsh in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston wrote:
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Eddie Macon's Run | Man in Bar | Film debut |
| 1984 | Principal Stoddard | ||
| 1985 | Right to Kill? | Major Eckworth | TV movie |
| Hard Choices | Deputy Anderson | ||
| 1986 | Hannah and Her Sisters | Ed Smythe | |
| Power | Jerome Cade | ||
| 1987 | Tin Men | Wing | |
| House of Games | The Businessman / Cop | ||
| Good Morning, Vietnam | Sergeant Major Phillip Dickerson | ||
| 1988 | Things Change | Hotel Manager | |
| Tequila Sunrise | DEA Agent Hal Maguire | ||
| 1989 | Allen Habel | ||
| Wired | Bob Woodward | ||
| Dad | Dr. Santana | ||
| 1990 | Why Me? | Chief Inspector Francis Mahoney | |
| Crazy People | Mr. Charles F Drucker | ||
| Cole | |||
| Narrow Margin | Michael Tarlow | ||
| Misery | Chief Sherman Douglas | Uncredited | |
| Colonel Jackson Quinn | |||
| 1991 | Iron Maze | Jack Ruhle | |
| Backdraft | Alderman Marty Swayzak | ||
| Defenseless | Steven Seldes | ||
| True Identity | Agent Houston | ||
| 1992 | Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Andrew Markinson | ||
| Hoffa | Frank Fitzsimmons | ||
| Grover Dean | |||
| 1993 | Sniper | Colonel Chester Van Damme | |
| Loaded Weapon 1 | Desk Clerk | ||
| Red Rock West | Kevin McCord / Sheriff Wayne Brown | ||
| Needful Things | Danforth "Buster" Keeton III | Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
| Morning Glory | Sheriff Reese Goodloe | ||
| One Little Indian | Marshall Robinson | Short | |
| 1994 | Frank Griffith | ||
| Blue Chips | "Happy" Kuykendahl | ||
| FBI Agent Jason McThune | |||
| Silent Fall | Sheriff Mitch Rivers | ||
| Miracle on 34th Street | Ed Collins | ||
| 1995 | Outbreak | White House Chief of Staff | Uncredited |
| Mike Sr. | |||
| Harry Tucker | |||
| Black Day Blue Night | Lieutenant John Quinn | ||
| Charlie's Ghost Story | Darryl | ||
| Nixon | John Ehrlichman | Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | |
| Sacred Cargo | Father Stanislav | ||
| 1996 | Executive Decision | Senator Jason Mavros | |
| Ted Hannon | |||
| Sling Blade | Charles Bushman | Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | |
| 1997 | Breakdown | Warren "Red" Barr | Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1998 | Inspector Terence Niebaum | Posthumous release | |
| Pleasantville | Bob "Big Bob" | ||
| 1999 | Hidden Agenda | Jonathan Zanuck |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | The Edge of Night | Ken Bloom #2 | 9 Episodes |
| 1985 | All My Children | Jay Garland | 1 Episode |
| 1987 | Andrew Lawford | Episode: "Murder and Acquisitions" | |
| The Ellen Burstyn Show | Dan Hodges | Episode: "Writer, Wronger" | |
| The Equalizer | Andrew Banks / Sam Griffith | 2 Episodes | |
| 1988 | Windmills of the Gods | Colonel Bill McKinney | TV Miniseries |
| 1989 | L.A. Law | Pete Bostik | Episode: "Consumed Innocent" |
| 1992 | In the Shadow of a Killer | Inspector Leo Kemeny | TV movie |
| 1993 | The American Clock | Judge Bradley | TV film based on the play by Arthur Miller |
| 1994 | Birdland | Potter | Episode: "Grand Delusion" |
| Colonel Charles Fane | Episode: "Operation Blackout" | ||
| Starstruck | Greer | TV movie | |
| 1995 | The X Files | Warden Brodeur | Episode: "The List" |
| 1996 | Crime of the Century | Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. | TV movie |
| Gang in Blue | Lieutenant William Eyler | ||
| 1996–1997 | Dark Skies | Frank Bach | 19 Episodes |
| 1997 | Hope | Ray Percy | Goldie Hawn's directorial debut |
| Jules Rozack | Episode: "Radio FBI" | ||