R.I.P. Ed Lauter, familiar character actor of The Longest Yard, The Artist, and Shameless

Ed Lauter, a prolific and versatile character actor whose career in film and television spanned more than 40 years, has died at the age of 74, of mesothelioma. Lauter’s own preferred term for what he did was “turn actor,” a phrase he said he picked up from
an older writer at the famous Algonquin Hotel in New York, and he said, "You know what you are?—you're a turn actor." "A turn actor?" I said. "Whaddya mean?" And he said, "Well, the movie starts out, and it's running along, and the story gets going, and all of a sudden your character is introduced—that's when the story takes a turn. Your character is important to the plotline because he gives it an important turn or twist, making it go into a completely different direction."
After honing his stagecraft as a stand-up comedian, Lauter debuted on Broadway by playing multiple roles in The Great White Hope, where he was noticed by the legendary casting director Lynn Stalmaster. Stalmaster got him into one of his first movies, The New Centurians (1972). With his bald pate, hawk’s profile, and a voice so dry it often seemed on the verge of cackling, Lauter was well-equipped to snatch up any roles that, 10 years earlier, would likely have gone to Robert Duvall.
Among his many, many appearances: Robert Culp’s Hickey & Boggs (1972); Robert Benton’s Bad Company (1972); Rage, directed by his New Centurians co-star, George C. Scott; Lamont Johnson’s The Last American Hero (1973); Executive Action (1973), where he plotted JFK’s assassination; Robert Aldrich’s The Longest Yard (1974) and its 2005 remake; The French Connection II (1975); Alfred Hitchcock’s final movie, Family Plot (1976); King Kong (1976); the crazy-ventriloquist horror film Magic (1978); the lovable sci-fi/ Western mashup Timerider (1982); Nicolas Roeg’s Eureka (1983); Cujo (1983), where he was killed by the title character; Martha Coolidge’s Real Genius (1985); and cranking Charles Bronson up and turning him loose in Death Wish 3.