Stage, TV and Film Character Actor Bert Remsen, 74, is Dead
Bert Remsen, the character actor who started on the New York stage before moving west to roles on TV and film, died April 22 in southern California, the New York Times reported. He was 74.
MAY 03, 1999
Bert Remsen, the character actor who started on the New York stage before moving west to roles on TV and film, died April 22 in southern California, the New York Times reported. He was 74. Mr. Remsen was born in Glen Cole, NY., and studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
He performed in stock and on Broadway, appearing in Diamond Lil and The Rainmaker.
Mr. Remsen played television roles and, in the 1960s, became a casting director before Robert Altman encouraged him to come back to acting. After 1970, he appeared in "Brewster McCloud," "Thieves Like Us," "Maverick," "Lookin' to Get Out," "Independence Day" and more.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara, two daughters, a brother and two grandchildren.
BERT REMSEN, 74, CHARACTER ACTOR
By MYRNA OLIVER Los Angeles Times
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Apr 27, 1999 at 12:00 am
LOS ANGELES — Bert Remsen, veteran and prolific character actor who was undeterred by severe back injuries suffered on a sound stage and amassed half a century of stage, television and film credits from Pork Chop Hill to the current Forces of Nature, has died. He was 74.
Mr. Remsen died Thursday in his sleep of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, his family said Monday.
The versatile performer thought his acting days were over in 1964 when an 84-foot crane toppled over on the television set of No Time for Sergeants. Struck by the crane, Mr. Remsen suffered a broken back and multiple fractures of his left leg.
Through months of surgeries and chronic pain, the pragmatic Mr. Remsen decided to alter his career, becoming a casting director. He was beginning to establish himself, casting for the television series The FBI and for a number of early 1970s television movies.
His work moved forward, although Carl Reiner and other friends kept finding roles for an actor on crutches. Mr. Remsen was casting the film Brewster McCloud for Robert Altman in 1970, and while searching for just the right actor to portray a psychotic cop, the director suddenly looked at him and said, "You."
The actor went on to work for Altman in other motion pictures -- McCabe & Mrs. Miller, California Split and Nashville -- and soon found himself so busy acting again that he abandoned the casting business. Mr. Remsen was especially memorable as T-Dub in Altman's Thieves Like Us and as guest William Williamson in A Wedding, toddling about on the actor's favorite cane.
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For other directors, Mr. Remsen was notable as the choleric coach Bo Winnegar in Fast Break; Kid Colors in The Sting II; a riverboat gambler in Maverick; and Ned in Forces of Nature, now in theaters.
A native of Glen Cove, N.Y., Mr. Remsen served in the Navy during World War II and earned a Purple Heart for wounds suffered on Okinawa.
