Richard Riehle, a prolific character actor in TV and film who often played authority figures but was equally skilled at comedy, notably playing a sad-sack product manager in Office Space, has died. He was 78.
Wright Entertainment Inc. said Monday that Riehle had died Oct. 15 but disclosed no cause or details. “Our industry has lost an exceptional talent, and our community has lost a truly wonderful man,” said a statement.
Riehle’s almost five-decade career included playing a quartermaster in the Civil War drama Glory, a prison guard in The Fugitive, an air marshal in Executive Decision, a police officer in a guest spot on The West Wing and a principal on the TV adaptation of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
“If a casting director has found themselves in need of a burly, blustery, mustachioed man for their project, Richard Riehle has likely been near the top of their list,” The AV Club said in 2017.
He fell into acting as a senior at the University of Notre Dame. He couldn’t really afford to stay another year but was told he could take all the credits he needed in speech and drama in one semester. He stayed.
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“I spent a semester doing anything and everything that you do in the theater — acting, directing, building sets, etc. — and then for some reason they liked what I did enough that they got me a teaching assistantship at the University of Minnesota. So I went on and got my MFA (Masters of Fine Arts). I figured, ‘What the heck? If they’re gonna pay me to do it, I’m gonna do it!’” he told the AV Club.
He had his first lines in the 1977 movie Joyride alongside Desi Arnaz Jr., Anne Lockhart, Robert Carradine and Melanie Griffith. He’d go on to appear in the broad comedy Bridesmaids, the comedy-mystery Shadows and Fog for Woody Allen, Black Rain with Michael Douglas and the sitcom Grounded For Life.
He had an affinity to the Star Trek world, landing parts in three franchises —Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992, Star Trek: Voyager in 2000 and Star Trek: Enterprise in 2004. He was on Broadway three times, including with Paul Giamatti in a 1999 revival of The Iceman Cometh.
One of his most beloved roles was in the 1999 film Office Space, as Tom Smykowski, an expendable employee at Initech facing getting laid off despite insisting, “I have people skills!”
“Beyond his immense talent, he will be remembered for his genuine goodness, boundless kindness, and unwavering generosity, particularly toward emerging actors and filmmakers, whom he encouraged and supported at every opportunity,” Wright Entertainment said.
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