A prolific actor who specializes in supporting roles, known to moviegoers with his appearances in Paul Thomas Anderson’s first three films, Philip Baker Hall died on Sunday at the age of 90, his family announced.
Holly Wolfle Hall, her husband of nearly 40 years, said her husband died surrounded by loved ones in Glendale, California. She said she started feeling sick a few weeks ago and spent her last days in a peaceful state.
In a career that spanned half a century, Philip Baker Hall was one of the most recognizable faces on the big and small screens in the United States. Her dark, excessive appearance can hide fierce intensity or humble sensitivity.
The scope of his talent was wide, but his serious demeanor often led him to play men in suits, raincoats or lab coats.
Preoccupied men, older men, who have reached the tolerance threshold for stress and painsaid the actor about his choice of roles in an interview with Washington Post in 2017.
A decisive meeting
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Philip Baker Hall moved to Los Angeles in 1975, where he mostly worked in stage productions early in his career. A member of the LA Actor Theater troupe, he performed ousted Republican President Richard Nixon in the play Secret Honor. A role he did in Robert Altman’s 1984 film adaptation.
Criticism of New Yorker Pauline Kael writes that, in her interpretation, she Covering up his own fear of being a common actor in a way that seems to conform to Nixon’s feelings.
One day in 1992, while filming a show on PBS, he met a production assistant in his early twenties named Paul Thomas Anderson. The two men hang out together, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee between scenes. The aspiring filmmaker then gave the actor the script for a short film he hoped to make, Cigarettes and Coffee.
I’m reading this script, and I honestly have a hard time believing that this person actually wrote it.said Philip Baker Hall in an interview on the AV Club site in 2012.
” It’s brilliant, full of nuances, just like a real playwright would. It was breathtaking. “
After the film’s premiere at Sundance, Paul Thomas Anderson adapted it into a feature film. Released in 1997, Double no (Tough Eight) drove the career of Philip Baker Hall. He plays a polite casino gambler named Sydney, who takes under his wing a young wanderer, played by John C. Reilly.
Philip Baker Hall will star in the filmmaker’s two subsequent films. Sa boogie Nightshe plays as a producer of porn films, and in Magnoliathat’s a TV quiz host.
He’s an actor I admire. No one has a face or voice like himsaid Paul Thomas Anderson about Philip Baker Hall in an interview with Los Angeles Times in 1998.
A wonderful comedic role
For many people, Philip Baker Hall is most associated with one of the most memorable characters in the Seinfeld. In the third season of the hit comedy series, he plays Lt. Joe Bookman, an avid investigator working for a library asks Jerry for a book he will never return.
Philip Baker Hall changed his role in the final episode of Seinfeld. His creator, Larry David, who says no other actor made him laugh so much, then threw him into his series Hide your fun (Restrain Your Enthusiasm), in which he performed as a witty doctor.
In the film, Philip Baker Hall has worked for the past two decades with several well -known filmmakers, including Michael Mann (The insider), Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley), William Friedkin (Rules of Interaction), Lars von Trier (Dogville) and David Fincher (Zodiac).
His last screen appearance was in the Netflix series Messiahreleased in 2020, in which he plays a former CIA collaborator.
Philip Baker Hall is survived by his wife, brother, four daughters and four grandchildren.
Radio Canada
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
