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Veteran character player of film and TV since the early 1970s. Husky, balding and often rather phlegmatic in his line delivery, Walsh convinces as unsympathetic working-class authority figures and bad guys. While he excels in realizing the sleaze potential of Everyman, Walsh also remains credible playing basically benign elders. After learning his craft in summer stock and regional theater, he made both his Broadway and feature debuts in 1969 with the play "Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?" and an uncredited bit in "Midnight Cowboy". Over the next quarter of a century, Walsh became a prolific supporting actor in Hollywood. Some highlights among Walsh's many small but indelible feature roles include Dustin Hoffman's slimy parole officer in "Straight Time" (1978); the madman stalking Steve Martin throughout "The Jerk" (1979); young Timothy Hutton's insensitive swim coach in "Ordinary People" (1980); and the callous police captain in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" (1982). He may be best remembered as the gleefully crooked Southern private eye in the Coen Brothers' bravura debut, "Blood Simple" (1984). In this major supporting role, Walsh not only narrated the film but his character's twisted sensibility set the story's (im)moral tone. He later played a relentless repo-man in pursuit of Christopher Lloyd's 1979 Gremlin in the kid comedy, "Camp Nowhere" (1994). Walsh is also a TV fixture, appearing in numerous TV series--as both a regular and a guest star--and TV-movies and miniseries. More often than not, he was cast as crusty cops. Walsh's distinctive voice was well utilized by Ken Burns in his two landmark documentary series "The Civil War" (PBS, 1990) and "Baseball" (PBS, 1994). He was memorable in a 1994 guest spot on the hit ABC family sitcom "Home Improvement" as Tim Allen's gung ho father-in-law, a retired colonel. Walsh also continues to work on stage in summer stock and regional theater.
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