Philip Baker Hall

US sitcom Seinfeld has paid tribute to “the great” Philip Baker Hall, following his death aged 90. The actor, who appeared in the show alongside Jerry ...

Actor Mark Ruffalo, who starred alongside him in the film Zodiac, paid tribute to Hall, saying: "RIP Philip Baker Hall. One of the greats. According to his wife Holly Wolfle Hall, the actor died surrounded by loved ones in Glendale, California. US sitcom Seinfeld has paid tribute to “the great” Philip Baker Hall, following his death aged 90. It was an honor working with you in Zodiac. Kindness, generosity, humility, and great talent." "Hall had a long and impressive career as one of Hollywood’s top character actors. He was also known for playing librarian Mr Bookman in Seinfeld.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Hall initially devoted himself more to the theatre in Los Angeles, after moving out in 1975, than TV and movies.

“I’m reading this script, and I truly had trouble believing that that kid wrote this script,” Hall told the AV Club in 2012. In it, Hall played a wise and courteous itinerate gambler named Sydney who schools a young drifter (John C. Reilly) on the craft. Anderson, believing Hall hadn't gotten his due in film, asked him to look at a script he had written for a 20-minute short film titled “Cigarettes & Coffee.” Born in Toledo, Ohio, Hall initially devoted himself more to the theatre in Los Angeles, after moving out in 1975, than TV and movies. While shooting bit parts in Hollywood (an episode of “Good Times” was one of his first gigs), Hall worked with the L.A. Actor Theatre. There he played Richard Nixon in the one-act play “Secret Honor,” a role he reprised in Robert Altman's 1984 film adaptation. His range was wide, but Hall, who had a natural gravitas, often played men in suits, trench coats and lab coats.

The actor, who appeared in the popular US sitcom alongside Jerry Seinfeld, died on Sunday aged 90, according to his family.

It was an honour working with you in Zodiac. Kindness, generosity, humility, and great talent”. Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo, who starred alongside him in Zodiac, tweeted: “RIP Philip Baker Hall. One of the greats. US sitcom Seinfeld has paid tribute to “the great” Philip Baker Hall, following his death aged 90.

The actor, whose Hollywood career spans more than five decades, garnered 185 film and TV credits.

The world has an empty space in it,” the Los Angeles Times writer shared online. “My neighbour, friend, and one of the wisest, most talented and kindest people I’ve ever met, Philip Baker Hall, died peacefully last night. The actor is most known for his work in the films Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999).

American character actor Philip Baker Hall, whose roles include Seinfeld, Modern Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm has died at the age of 90.

In a 2004 interview, Hall told Rolling Stone: ‘Bookman was one of the last roles I ever auditioned for, simply because so many doors opened up after I did the show.’ In the show he accuses Seinfeld of denying other youngsters the book's adult content, concluding: ‘Well, I got a flash for ya, Joy-boy: Party time is over.’ Hall’s breakthrough came in a 1991 episode of Seinfeld when he played library investigator Joe Bookman, who tracks down the comedian for a long-overdue copy of Tropic of Cancer.

Hall enjoyed a prolific career which spanned over 40 years in both film and theatre, including as library detective on the long-running American comedy.

It was an honour working with you in Zodiac. Kindness, generosity, humility, and great talent". Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo, who starred alongside him in Zodiac, tweeted: "RIP Philip Baker Hall. One of the greats. Hall enjoyed a prolific career which spanned over 40 years in both film and theatre, including as library detective on the long-running American comedy.

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The role saw him hunt for an overdue copy of Tropic of Cancer and his appearance was so well received that he returned for the last ever episode of Seinfeld in 1998. “One of the giants who blessed us was the great Phillip Baker Hall who has left us 90 years of tremendous work. He has been married twice and has four daughters - Patricia and Darcy from his marriage to Dianne Lewis from 1973-6, and Anna and Adella from his marriage to Holly Wolfle whom he married in 1981. One of his most iconic roles was his guest appearance as librarian Mr. Bookman in a season three episode of Seinfeld called The Library. He began his screen career in 1970 and over the next 50 years racked up 185 screen credits. Hall’s first screen role was as Father Reis in Vietnam War film Cowards in 1970, and his last was as Zelman Katz in the 2020 thriller series Messiah.

One of the first times I ever saw a performance by Philip Baker Hall—the beloved character actor who died Sunday at the enviable age of 90—was during the ...

In the commentary track on the Hard Eight DVD, Anderson, not coincidentally an Altman acolyte, says that Hall is his “favorite actor in the whole world,” and “the great American actor.” Anderson also says that, outside of Secret Honor and a few other roles, he believed that most of the work Hall was doing was beneath him. Then came Anderson’s Magnolia (1999), in which Hall, part of a large and sprawling ensemble, plays Jimmy Gator, a quiz show host whose vile crimes against his daughter (Melora Walters), as well as his rampant, almost medicinal alcoholism (“I’ve got a lot of drinking to do”), combine to make him slowly dissolve over the course of the 188-minute epic. He’s in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, for instance, and in David Fincher’s Zodiac he plays a handwriting expert who doesn’t really help out the homicide detectives trying to find the notorious serial killer at all. Hard Eight got noticed, but not as noticed as Anderson’s follow-up, Boogie Nights (1997), which features Hall in a small part as a pornographer who doesn’t put on the airs of the pornographers who are central to the story. Hall is just Sydney. Probably my favorite scene in the whole film is when the almost terminally naïve John introduces Jimmy to Sydney in a Reno casino. Though it would be a while before he landed another high profile role, Hall continued to act steadily, and memorably, in films such as Three O’Clock High (1987) and Midnight Run (1988), in which he plays an attorney failing to calm the violent instincts of his mob boss client. John wanted to win money to bury his mother, and Sydney, as a gambler who knows the ropes, offers to help him at least survive for a while. But that doesn’t mean it’s not terrifically absorbing, and it especially doesn’t mean that Philip Baker Hall’s Sydney is any less than a stellar piece of work. Hall began his film career in 1970, but didn’t get a real break until 1984, when he appeared as Richard Nixon in Robert Altman’s adaptation of Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone’s play Secret Honor. This was during Altman’s years in the wilderness, after H.E.A.L.T.H. and Popeye tanked, and before The Player gave him new life. As the film winds down, as crazed as his Nixon becomes, Hall imbues that mania with a hidden tiredness that makes it feel as though after he yells obscenities at us, he could very well sleep for two days straight. But Hall is utterly mesmerizing: funny, empathetic to the tragedy of the man, and tireless. “Before Bookman, my agent would say, ‘Well, they really liked your work, they really love you, but they don’t think you’re right for this,’” Hall said in an interview with the AV Club. “After Bookman, there was no door closed to me in the industry.”

PHILIP BAKER Hall, the US character actor who had a much-loved guest role in the sitcom Seinfel...

It was an honour working with you in Zodiac. Kindness, generosity, humility, and great talent". Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo, who starred alongside him in Zodiac, tweeted: "RIP Philip Baker Hall. One of the greats. His talent will be cherished.pic.twitter.com/1x5mLyvro3

Actor who brought gravitas, daftness and darkness to character roles after being 'discovered' in his 60s.

In the schlocky melodrama Die, Mommie, Die! (2003), he played the husband of a murderous diva (Charles Busch in drag) and got his laughs by playing the part without so much as a knowing wink to the audience. Hall himself had a bird in hand in Duck (2005), savouring his leading role as a widower who travels everywhere with his feathered friend. When he met agents, they “would study the résumé, and they would agree that it was a real résumé … But movies are a different world … until I had film, I was kind of a non-person in Los Angeles.” He subsequently found himself in the unlikely position of being “discovered” by Anderson, who was working as a volunteer on a TV drama in which Hall was appearing. (“You have to be a policeman,” he said of the teaching profession. The family relied on relatives and welfare for years until Hall’s father found a job at a car factory.

The actor, who played library detective Lt. Joe Bookman on the hit American sitcom, passed away on Sunday night (June 12) with complications from emphysema, as ...

Despite being best known by many for his role as Lt. Joe Bookman in Seinfeld, Hall appeared in just two episodes of the hit sitcom between 1991 and 1998. Marvel star Mark Ruffalo, who starred alongside Hall in Zodiac, also paid tribute to the late actor, tweeting: “RIP Philip Baker Hall. One of the greats. His talent will be cherished.pic.twitter.com/1x5mLyvro3

Veteran character actor Philip Baker Hall, who died Monday at age 90, made an indelible impression as Lt. Joe Bookman on "Seinfeld."

His sweet spot was “men who are highly stressed, older men, who are at the limit of their tolerance for suffering and stress and pain,” Hall said. “They’re all starving.” And, furthermore, “you’re a theater actor. He just acts like he’s not in a comedy.” Hall returned as Bookman for “Seinfeld’s” much-debated 1998 finale. “I had an affinity for playing those roles.” It’s almost impossible to learn at your age.” There are nearly 180 “Seinfeld” episodes and a constellation of guest stars over nine seasons. As the hard-nosed, Folgers Crystals-imbibing, New York Public Library cop, Hall out-Fridays “Dragnet’s” Sgt. Joe Friday. He’s an alien from another era. Jerry had problems getting through the scene.” Hall appears in the 22nd episode, airing Oct. 16, 1991, early in the third season when Seinfeld and co-creator Larry David were still monkeying with the recipe. And furthermore: “What’s my problem? Few actors, if any, have marched onto a sitcom juggernaut and in a few minutes of sublime, dyspeptic, no-nonsense nonsense made such an enduring impression as Philip Baker Hall did.

Once things took off for Hall, he became a go-to actor whenever directors wanted a gravelly voiced man who could project authority, grumpiness or sometimes ...

Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Anderson went on to write a lead role specifically for Hall in 1996's "Hard Eight," Anderson's first movie as writer and director. Hall's moving performance as the dying children's quiz show host, Jimmy Gator, would have seemed like a lock for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, but he was in the same movie with Tom Cruise, whose startling performance as motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey earned the actor his most recent nomination. Hall teamed with director and Army Air Forces veteran Robert Altman to bring this one-man show about President Richard Nixon to the screen. Hall's Dr. Morrison makes a grievous error when he agrees to share his private phone number with David. He gave Hollywood a shot after he turned 30 and did theater for a few years before he got his break in films.