I'm watching HBO's "Tuskegee Airmen" an saw an old friend that has passed: Ed Lauter

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491590/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t23


Edward Matthew Lauter II was born on October 30, 1938 in Long Beach, New York. In a film career that has extended for over four decades, Lauter has starred in a plethora of film and television productions since making his big screen debut in the western Dirty Little Billy (1972). He had portrayed an eclectic array of characters over the years, ... See full bio »
Born: Edward Matthew Lauter II

October 30, 1938 in Long Beach, Long Island, New York, USA

Died: October 16, 2013 (age 74) in Los Angeles, California, USA

[Blue_Tires]

1. I mainly know him from "The Longest Yard"

[edbermac]

2. Busy man with all those credits. Was in Hitch's last film Family Plot.

[pinboy3niner]

3. I once worked for one of the Tuskegee Airmen

Woody Driver, when he served as Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

R.I.P., Woody--a good, good man and a good Democrat.

[NBachers]

4. He was great with Charles Bronson in "Breakheart Pass." One of the best movie intros ever:

After seeing that, now I want to watch the whole movie again.

He's kinda got those Lee Van Cleef eyes.

[winstars]

5. Great guy... Met and hung with him backstage at a big rock show I was working about 8 years ago...

The show was just starting and he was behind the stage in a area no one should have been at. Just as security was gonna toss him out I saw him and then said "hey, isn't that Ed Lauter??? (to myself of course) I intervened and moved him off to the side for a minute and then we got the show started. I then went over to him and introduced myself and told him that I knew exactly who he was and to please let me find a spot for him to watch the show from. We talked and talked movies, he was so cool. What threw me was his Queens NY accent, which was similar to mine. (Brooklyn) I had no idea from ALL the movies he had been in and that I has seen that he basically sounded like James Caan or Al Pacino in real life.

Anyway he watched the show and toward the end I went over and said my goodbyes, he was so grateful to me, he could not have been more of a gentleman and all around cool cat!!! Very, very much so and I have seen them all...What was funny is that some of my co-workers saw him and were equally as "hey, I know that guy"... cool....

A few months later he tracked me down and asked if I could get his son into the show in Atlanta, I did and his son was also very nice and like his Dad, really normal.

When I read that he had passed away recently it saddened me because I had hoped one day to see him again a some show, in the wrong place at the wrong time but with that unforgettable face and smile... And his accent... Who knew?