Rip Torn

Born: February 6th 1931
Where: Temple, Texas

The versatile character player's career constant is that he has always appeared in unusual films or played unusual characters in more mainstream fare.

With his weathered, craggy features and dynamic intelligence, Torn favors roles which allow him to be at once surly and sensitive.

His rare lead roles have showcased an explosive talent, as in Tropic of Cancer, as expatriate author Henry Miller, Payday, as a country singer and the made-for-TV Blind Ambition, as Richard Nixon.

Often cast as Southern good-ol'-boys or rednecks, he can turn his introspection into flamboyance in an instant.

This proved ideal for volatile supporting characters in several Tennessee Williams plays, including Orpheus Descending, Sweet Bird of Youth and The Glass Menagerie.

In Sweet Bird, for instance, he brought real menace to the role of "Boss" Finley's vacuous son Tom Jr, a role he recreated in the 1962 film version.

Torn's film debut was in a feature version of Williams' Baby Doll and, several decades later, he also enjoyed himself immensely as Big Daddy in a 1984 made-for-cable version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

His many Southern characters have also had their more dour, reflective or gentle sides as well, such as the roles in Birch Interval, Heartland (1980) and Cross Creek (1983).

Torn also appeared in a couple of Norman Mailer's cinematic improvisations of the late 1960s, Beyond the Law and Maidstone.

He was perhaps at his most manic playing himself in the ill-fated, rarely seen Jean-Luc Godard/D A Pennebaker experiment, One A.M. in 1971.

In that same strange experimental period, Torn could also play it relatively straight in Francis Ford Coppola's charmingly way-out handling of the mild comedy-drama, You're a Big Boy Now.

As the years have gone by he has frequently found his thoughtful, adaptable demeanor suited for historical personages, be they Lyndon Johnson in the TV-movie J. Edgar Hoover, Carlo Ponti in Sophia Loren: Her Own Story or enigmatic poet Walt Whitman in Song of Myself.

He starred in RoboCop 3, Michael Moore's fiction-film-directing debut Canadian Bacon and How to Make an American Quilt.

Other appearances included Disney's Hercules, The Insider and Wonder Boys in 2000.

Torn created a second well-known character, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones' superior Chief Zed, when he appeared in the meg-hit sci-fi comedy Men and Black and its sequel Men in Black 2.

He continued to be drawn to comedies, and despite the occasional misfire - such as appearing a Tom Green's father in the abysmal Freddy Got Fingered - his turns were largely welcome.

Torn played Megan Mullalley's secret lover Lionel Banks in a recurring stint on the sitcom Will & Grace and Gene Hackman's wily campaign advisor in the comedy Welcome to Mooseport.

He also appeared as the eccentric and sometimes brutal former-dodgeball-great-turned-coach Patches O'Houlihan in the comedy Dodgeball.