Tom Bower, an actor who had a five-decade profession in Hollywood in movies comparable to “Die Onerous 2” and “Nixon” and the TV present “The Waltons,” died final month, his household mentioned on Thursday.
He was 86.
His sister Mary Miller informed the Hollywood Reporter that Bower died in his sleep at residence in Los Angeles, Calif., on Could 30.
Bower was nonetheless showing in films and tv sequence proper up till 2023, when he did a three-episode visitor spot on AMC’s “Fortunate Hank” as Bob Odenkirk’s father Henry Sr.
One memorable position was because the janitor Marvin in 1990’s “Die Onerous 2,” through which he helps Bruce Willis’ John McClane struggle terrorists at Dulles Worldwide Airport.
He additionally performed the president’s father Frank in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” starring Anthony Hopkins as Tough Dick.
And Bower took on a wide range of character roles by way of the years in different movies, like “Beverly Hills Cop 2,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “Pollock” and “Hearts in Atlantis.”
On tv, the actor appeared in 26 episodes of the healthful sequence “The Waltons” as Dr. Curtis Willard.
The actor later mentioned he was written off the present — his character was dramatically killed in the course of the assault on Pearl Harbor — when he requested for extra money.
“I requested for a really small increase, in order that they despatched me to Pearl Harbor,” he mentioned in 2022. “Then, after they determined to carry the character again, washed up on a shore someplace — which I didn’t suppose was an incredible thought anyway — I requested for a similar small increase … They only forged a unique actor.”
Bower had visitor spots on different standard TV reveals comparable to “The X-Information,” “The West Wing,” “Monk,” “Homicide, She Wrote” and “Prison Minds.”
Bower was born in Denver in 1938, and later moved to New York to review on the American Academy of Dramatic Artwork within the Fifties.
Early on he labored as a non-public investigator in Boston, and gave performing classes to a younger Al Pacino.