RIP Ed Lauter

Wow, bad news. One of the great character actors of the ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Lauter specialized in playing dickwad cops and other assorted douches. He’s perhaps best remembered on these pages for his supporting role in the seminal Jabootu classic Death Wish III.

Mr. Lauter’s first role, fittingly, was as a police sergeant on an episode of Mannix. He quickly joined that pool of character actors who were constantly rotating an endless skein of TV guest appearances with the occasional movie role.

By the ’80s his bald pate and indelible sneer bought him steady work as a heavy, or at best the hardass but basically honest cop. Genre credits include the TV movie Satan’s Triangle, the ’76 version of King Kong, The White Buffalo, Magic, The Clone Master, the modestly nifty Charles Bronson / Lee Marvin action piece Death Hunt, Timerider and Cujo. As noted, he also appeared on a zillion TV shows, everything from Mannix to Psych. He worked until his death, having several projects still in the can.

Mr. Lauter was 75 at the time of his passing.

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Ericb

Don’t forget The Longest Yard
sandra

Ed Lauter was a busy actor. 243 movie and tv appearances. Let us not forget his only starring role : Last Hours Before Morning, a TVM film noir in which he played the good guy, an ex-cop turned Private Eye in 40s LA.
Food

He had two guest appearances on The A-Team, including playing the anti-Hannibal in arguably the best A-Team episode, “Deadly Maneuvers.”
SteveWD

Watched Magic not too long ago and kept asking myself “who is that?”. He’s got a heavy beard in that movie and I couldn’t recognize him. Had to look it up afterwards. R.I.P.
Flangepart

Looks like one of those character actors who get a limited style of part, but has quarrels with steady work that leads to the occasional goodies. Working with Bronson, Marvin and other actors has to be a cool gig.
R.I.P. dude. You were a pro.
zombiewhacker

RIP Ed.
Gamera977

I always think of the one where he plays ‘the hardass but basically honest cop’ who tries to run the team out of town until he has to ally with them to defend said town from Sid Haig’s one-percenter bikers.
sandra

It turns out Last Hours Before Morning was intended as the pilot for a series called Delaney, but it wasn’t picked up. Pity.
Food

Yup! It’s easy to forget that he was in that episode, because everything about the episode was overshadowed by Murdoch chicken-walking in front of the bikers.
CaptNemo

For me, he’ll always be Mahoney in Alfred Hitchcock’s last movie: Family Plot.

For televison, he’s the father who’s son was killed by Wesley in “The First Duty.”

RIP, Sir!