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Ned Beatty, Superman, Deliverance, and Exorcist 2 actor, passes away

He had a substantial filmography across movies and TV

Ned Beatty, an actor who featured in Superman, Deliverance, Network and many more in a career stretched across five decades, has passed away, family members told THR. He was 83.

Beatty made his feature film debut in 1972 horror film Deliverance as Bobby Trippe, one of the four businessmen whose boating excursion in Georgia doesn’t quite go according to plan. Following success there, he went on to have roles in many prolific movies throughout the ’70s, including parts in All The President’s Men, Network, and Exorcist 2: The Heretic. He capped off the decade by starring opposite Christopher Reeves and Gene Hackman in 1978’s Superman, as Otis Berg, the henchman of Hackman’s Lex Luthor.

Otis returned for Superman 2, and Beatty collaborated again with director Richard Donner for 1982’s The Toy. A regular on TV as well as film, he became a main castmember on Homicide: Life on the Street in the early ’90s, playing detective Stanley Bolander for all three seasons, and subsequent movie. More recently, he provided the voice for Lotso, the villainous pink bear who tries to stop Woody from getting back to Andy in Toy Story 3.

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Long before he was terrorising toys in Pixar movies, Beatty received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Network, and a Golden Globe nomination for 1991’s Hear My Song. He received two Emmy nominations, the first for 1979’s Friendly Fire, and the second in 1989 for No Train Home.

He’s survived by his eight children.