Wilford Brimley, 'Cocoon' and 'Natural' actor, dies at 85
Source: AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from movie stunt rider to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace, to a range of films that included “Cocoon,” “The Natural” and “The Firm,” has died. He was 85. Brimley’s manager Lynda Bensky said the actor died Saturday morning in a Utah hospital. He was on dialysis and had several medical ailments, she said.
The mustached Brimley was a familiar face for a number of roles, often playing characters like his grizzled baseball manager in “The Natural” opposite Robert Redford’s bad-luck phenomenon. He also worked with Redford in “Brubaker” and “The Electric Horseman.”Brimley’s best-known work was in “Cocoon,” in which he was part of a group of seniors who discover an alien pod that rejuvenates them. The 1985 Ron Howard film won two Oscars, including a supporting actor honor for Don Ameche.
Brimley also starred in “Cocoon: The Return,” a 1988 sequel. For years he was pitchman for Quaker Oats and in recent years appeared in a series of diabetes spots that turned him at one point into a social media sensation.
“Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust,” Bensky said in a statement. “He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He had a tough exterior and a tender heart. I’m sad that I will no longer get to hear my friend’s wonderful stories. He was one of a kind.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/47e28e7ff299d8f4bc1424a73022ed73
I didn't realize he was that "young" since he played roles of people who were "older", yet like Bob Keeshan ("Captain Kangaroo" ), he was younger than he looked. In fact, because of that, he became the subject of memes
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By Ian Crouch
August 11, 2018
/snip
When “The Firm” came out, Brimley was fifty-eight years old—plodding, portly, with a gray walrus mustache, his grandfatherly mien in this case turned sinister. He was just two years older than Cruise is now, appearing boundlessly vigorous as the super-agent Ethan Hunt in the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie. Cruise has been very, very famous for the past thirty-five years, and in that time it’s been difficult to reconcile his unchanging appearance with the flipping pages on the calendar. It’s easier to track his movements through the six “Mission: Impossible” movies by his haircuts—short in No. 1, long in No. 2, short again in No. 3, etc.—or the size of his cell phone, than by changes to, let alone diminishments in, his face or body. He fixed his teeth years ago; he’s in better shape than ever. And so we are left to search for other ways to keep track of Cruise’s allegedly advancing years. Thankfully, the release of his latest summer blockbuster has resurfaced one of the surest methods: comparing him to his old scenemate Wilford Brimley.
This meme seems to have had its beginnings in 2011, when Cruise turned forty-nine, the same age that Brimley was when he began filming his role in Ron Howard’s movie “Cocoon,” from 1985, a kind of “E.T.” for the olds about a group of seniors living in a retirement community who are given the chance to live forever by leaving Earth on an alien spaceship. In the years since Cruise blasted through what I’ll call the Brimley Barrier, people online have continued to make the comparison between the two men, citing the fact that Cruise was a year, or two, or three years older than Brimley when he starred in “Cocoon.” Last month, a new tweet on the subject drew the attention of Brimley himself, who retweeted it and said, “This is still hard for me to believe.” Brimley, who is eighty-three, has settled into a late-life role as a meme machine, known among a younger generation less for his years of acting than for his role as the Quaker Oats pitchman, or for his pronunciation of the word “diabetes” as the television spokesman for Liberty Medical.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-wilford-brimley-meme-that-helps-measure-tom-cruises-agelessness
R.I.P.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Richard Farnsworth, Wilford Brimley in "The Natural" (1984)
The first thing I remember seeing Wilford Brimley in was "The Natural" where he managed the baseball team and befriended Robert Redford. However during the 1980's he had many roles including a recurring character on "The Waltons" TV series.
Rest In Peace Wilford Brimley! Safe journeys.
I only hope to live to 85
(Three Mile Island mess happening a couple months after the film released)
That's why I compared him to Bob Keeshan, who was only in his late 20s when he first started playing "Captain Kangaroo", who was like a "grandfather figure".
My favorite scene from all the movies he did.
That's one of my all-time favorite movies, and easily one of the top 10 horror movies ever made, IMO. The whole cast was great, but at the very end, the cold viciousness in Brimley's face...
RIP Mr. Brimley.
