2011 has barely started, and already we’ve lost an acting great. British character actor with the difficult-to-spell name Pete Postlethwaite passed away yesterday at age 64. Let’s celebrate his career by watching some of his movies on Blu-ray, shall we?
According to The Guardian, the actor died peacefully in his sleep after a long fight with cancer. Despite his ill health, he continued working vigorously, and appeared in no less than three movies last year: ‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘Inception’, and ‘The Town’. Eerily, his characters in the latter two had on-screen death scenes. (I haven’t seen ‘Clash’ and don’t know about that one.)
If I’m not mistaken, his character in ‘Inception’ died of cancer. That must have been a difficult scene to shoot. (It reminds me of Jason Robards’ final role in ‘Magnolia‘.) Postlethwaite’s character in ‘The Town’ was gunned down by Ben Affleck. That’s no way to go out.
Postlethwaite was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in 1993’s ‘In the Name of the Father’. He’s probably best known as Kobayashi in ‘The Usual Suspects’. The actor also worked with Steven Spielberg twice, in ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ and ‘Amistad’.
Below is a list of movies Postlethwaite appeared in that are currently available on Blu-ray:
‘Alien 3‘
‘Last of the Mohicans‘
‘The Usual Suspects‘
‘James and the Giant Peach‘
‘Romeo + Juliet‘
‘Dark Water‘
‘Aeon Flux‘
‘The Omen‘
‘Clash of the Titans‘
‘Inception‘
‘The Town‘
‘The Constant Gardener’ is available on Blu-ray in Canada, and can be imported easily from Amazon.ca.
Dail Whiteley
his character does die in clash . he was good in the role.
Chaz Dumbaugh
Thats such a shame, always loved him in his roles, RIP
Aaron Peck
For me Postlethwaite has always been that guy who appears on screen and I always say “Oh yeah, him, he’s in everything. He’s great, but I can never remember his name.”
I guess that’s a testament to his character acting ability.
EM
🙁 Also dead yesterday of cancer is Anne Francis, whose most enduring role will likely be Altaira in “Forbidden Planet”. Fortunately, it will not take a million years for her name to shine like a beacon in the galaxy—we can appreciate her now.
Alex
Pete Postlethwaite was one of those remarkable actors who seemed to elevate everything he did. If you do a quick rundown of the list, many of those movies are quite mediocre, and yet Mr. Postlethwaite was a shining star in each and every one. In particular, his Friar Lawrence was easily the best thing about Romeo + Juliet. He will be sorely missed.