Versatile star’s curveball career
Ned Beatty Actor BORN JULY 6, 1937 – DIED JUNE 13, 2021, AGED 83
NED Beatty rarely played the leading role on screen but his immense range and talent made him an unforgettable presence.
He made his film debut in 1972’s Deliverance as city slicker Bobby Trippe, who is sexually assaulted by a hillbilly while on a canoeing trip with friends.The scene in which Trippe is ordered by his attacker to “squeal like a pig” during his ordeal remains as harrowing today as it was then.
Beatty received his only Oscar nomination as the hard-headed executive Arthur Jensen who delivers a three-minute hellfire monologue on corporate power to anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) in Sidney Lumet’s 1976 black comedy-drama Network.
But he could just as easily play the fool, most notably as Otis, Lex Luthor’s hapless underling in the first two Superman films.
“Stars never want to throw the audience a curveball but my great joy is throwing curveballs,” he once remarked of his ability to continually surprise his audiences.
Ned Thomas Beatty was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Charles and Margaret Beatty.
From a young age he was singing in barbershop quartets and his church choir, and he considered the priesthood as a career before a school acting role seduced him.
His career started in regional theatre, ending up on Broadway in The Great White Hope alongside James Earl Jones.
The 1970s and 1980s were a prolific period for Beatty with roles in Nashville, All The President’s Men, Hopscotch and The Big Easy.
On TV he had recurring roles in Homicide: Life On The Street and Roseanne. More recently he voiced Lotso in Toy Story 3.
He is survived by his fourth wife, Sandra Johnson. He had eight children by his three previous wives. He died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home.