While we all adore and root for the stars and starlets of tinseltown, there is a treasure-trove of good men and women who have been integral to the success of all our favorite films. Bona fide, hard working and talented people who may never star in a film or see their name on a poster hanging in the local cineplex but will never escape our minds and imaginations when it comes to some good iconic and funny roles they play. This column is a tribute to the “Oh, That Guy” types, the common actor and the B-listers. They are the…

Geoffrey Lewis

Age: 79 (died April 7, 2015)

Number of Film & TV Roles: 219

Notable Roles: Every Which Way but Loose; Any Which Way You Can; Salem’s Lot; Bronco Billy; Heaven’s Gate; High Plains Drifter; Night of the Comet; The Lawnmower Man; Maverick; Double Impact; The Devil’s Rejects; Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage

Typical Roles: Slow-witted buddy, nice cop, helpful cowpoke

Why He’s Great: Mr. Lewis unfortunately passed away yesterday, but left behind an outstanding legacy of that guy roles. He’ll likely best be remembered as Clint Eastwood’s buddy, especially in Every Which Way but Loose in which he played Orville and got to paw Beverly D’Angelo, pal around with an orangutan, and ride with the Black Widows. He was also the proud papa of actress Juliette Lewis, which I honestly didn’t know until fairly recently, and the two appeared together in The Way of the Gun and Renegade (not the Lorenzo Llamas show). He was also a devoted Scientologist, so maybe he was really upset about that HBO documentary. 

Geoffrey Lewis’s Wikipedia page

Notable Clips:

(In this next clip, Geoffrey Lewis tells his life story)