Celebrity News July 10, 2019
Emmy Winner Rip Torn Dead at 88
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Actor Rip Torn, who was nominated for the Emmy six times — winning once — for his role on "The Larry Sanders Show" (1992-1998), has died. He was 88.
THR reports the actor died Tuesday at his Connecticut home, surrounded by his wife, actress Amy Wright, and two of his daughters.
Known for his volatility on and off set, Torn was a trained Shakespearean actor who was in the original Broadway production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955) and was Tony-nominated for "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959).
Along with his popular turn on "Sanders," Torn made many guest appearances on TV series and in made-for-TV movies from 1956 through 2016, most notably opposite Ingrid Bergman in 1961's "Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman's Life," and in acclaimed arcs on "Will & Grace" (2002) and "30 Rock" (2007-2009), the latter of which earned him an Emmy nomination.
In movies, his biggest success was in the "Men in Black" franchise (1997-2012), but overall, his film work was possibly the most eclectic of any actor in history, including war movies like "Time Limit" (1957) and "Pork Chop Hill" (1959); experimental fare like the sexually provocative "Coming Apart" (1969) and the David Bowie vehicle "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976); esteemed dramas like "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962), "The Seduction of Joe Tynan" (1979), and "Cross Creek" (1983), for which he received his lone Oscar nomination; clever comedies like "Defending Your Life" (1991); and a slew of farcical works that sometimes landed, as with "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story: (2004), and sometimes did not, as with "The Legend of Awesomest Maximus" (2011).
Torn's final on-camera appearance was as his "Men in Black" character for an Air New Zealand safety video in 2015, and his final work was a voice role on "TripTank" (2016).
Torn married three actresses: Ann Wedgeworth, from whom he was divorced; Geraldine Page, in a nearly 25-year union which ended with her untimely death; and Wright, to whom he had been married 30 years at the time of his passing. He is survived by Wright, by six children, by four grandchildren, and by his sister.
