Today we learned of some really sad news. According to Reuters, one of my favorite actors Pete Postlethwaite has died. Postlethwaite passed away Sunday from Cancer complications. Postlethwaite, 64, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1993 for his work in In the Name of the Father. Postlethwaite remained friends with his co-star Daniel Day Lewis. Day-Lewis said of Postlethwaite that “Pos was the one. As students, it was him we went to see on stage time and time again. It was him we wanted to be like; wild and true; lion hearted; unselfconscious, irreverent.”
Postlethwaite will always be remembered for his performance as Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects however his filmography and stage work is very diverse. He recently played Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear in 2008 at Liverpool’s Everyman theatre. His film work included turns as the nasty Janitor in 2005’s Dark Water, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, The Last King of Scotland, and as Father Laurence in Romeo + Juliet. Most recently he put in two very good performances as Cillian Murphy’s dying father in Inception and as menacing mobster/flower shop owner in Ben Affleck’s The Town. He recently completed work on Killing Bono which is due out in 2011. As a young actor myself, Postlethwaite was definitely someone I looked up to.
He is survived by his wife Jacqui, son Will, and daughter Lilly.