JT Walsh

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JT Walsh (actually James Patrick Walsh ; born September 28, 1943 in San Francisco , California - † February 27, 1998 in La Mesa , California) was an American actor .

youth

At the age of five he and his family moved to a military base in Munich for seven years and then to Stuttgart . His father, a civilian military auditor, was a strict head of the family. He sent James - and a year later his brother Christopher - to the Jesuit boarding school at Clongowes Wood College in Ireland , the land of their ancestors. James spent six years there, which shaped him.

At the age of 19 he began studying at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen . When his father died of a brain tumor in 1962 , the family moved back to Rhode Island , USA , where his mother grew up. There Walsh began to study at the University of Rhode Island , where he participated in many theatrical performances. At that time he was president of the Students for a Democratic Society , an organization that emerged from the anti-war movement of the 1960s.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in social science, Walsh worked as a social worker, encyclopedia seller , elementary school teacher, journalist, restaurant manager and bartender in one of the best seafood restaurants in Manhattan . It was only at the age of 30 that he began his acting career, initially in off- Broadway plays, after he was discovered by a theater director in 1974.

Walsh originally intended to use the initials J and P of his name for his stage name as well. During a casting , however, he was mistakenly addressed as JT Walsh instead of JP Walsh , and he adopted this name because he liked this sequence of letters better in the pronunciation.

Career

He had one of his first film roles in 1983 at the age of 39 in the movie Head Hunt . His breakthrough came in 1984 on Broadway as one of the corrupt real estate brokers in the play Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet . In the following 15 years Walsh worked as a busy actor in over 50 television and feature films as well as in numerous television series; u. a. in the Emmy- winning series Dark Skies .

The famous and influential American television critic Leonard Maltin once characterized Walsh's roles as "employed, silent, malicious creep". In this sense he embodied mostly unfriendly, choleric or scheming characters. He has worked with directors such as Woody Allen , Barry Levinson , David Mamet , Peter Hyams , Rob Reiner , Ron Howard , William Friedkin and John Dahl , among others . Walsh once said that he hoped to be able to follow the example of the actor Gene Hackman and to be cast for more complex structured characters and more substantial roles.

In 1997 he was for his portrayal of Ray Percy in the television movie Hope as Best Supporting Actor nominated for an Emmy. In the same year he played a murderous truck driver as the antagonist of Kurt Russell in Jonathan Mostow's film Breakdown .

In the last year of his life, Walsh u. a. in the films The death plot , Pleasantville - Too good to be true , and in the thriller The Negotiator (english The Negotiator ) with. In memory of him, these films were also dedicated posthumously to him. The film Outside Ozona was also dedicated to him, as he was originally supposed to play the role of Odell Park , but died shortly before production began. Walsh was then replaced by Robert Forster . During the 70th Academy Awards, Jack Nicholson dedicated his Oscar to him , which he received for his performance in the comedy Better It Doesn't Work (1997).

Walsh, who spoke fluent German , died of heart failure while on vacation at the age of 54 . He had three siblings (Christopher, Patricia and Mary) and left a son, who later became actor John West.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Walsh, JT
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walsh, James Patrick (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco , California
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1998
Place of death La Mesa (California) , California