Richard Riehle, the busy actor known for his bushy mustache and quirky turn as fired Initech product manager Tom Smykowski in Mike Judge’s Office spacedied. He was 78 years old.
Riehle died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Thursday, TMZ reported. His representatives at Artists & Representatives and Wright Entertainment confirmed his death “last weekend” in a statement without providing details.
Riehle also portrayed the guard who allows Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble to escape in Andrew Davis’ The fugitive (1993), a racist quartermaster in Edward Zwick’s film Glory (1989), a banker for mobsters in the film by Martin Scorsese Casino (1995) and father of Rob Schneider’s character in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999).
Riehle played Walt Finnerty (Donal Logue’s father) in all five seasons of the Fox-WB sitcom from 2001-05. Anchored for lifefeatured guest on the Star Trek series The next generation, Traveler And Business and he was the go-to guy to play Santa Claus; he was the happy guy of 2011 A very Harold & Kumar Christmas and in many other projects.
On social media, Logue wrote: “Richard Riehle was an incredible human being. A consummate professional, he was an actor – humble, kind and incredible at his craft…and I loved every minute I got to spend with him.”
He had over 430 acting credits on IMDb alone.
In Office space (1999), Tom survives a hit-and-run and uses his big financial settlement to build a “Jump to Conclusions” mat, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
In one memorable scene, Tom appears with a medical halo around his head while in a wheelchair. “They didn’t have a special effects guy there, so they hired a paramedic to come and put me in all that. Now he didn’t screw up the halo, thank God,” Riehle recalled in a 2017 AV Club interview.
“But he put all these casts on me, and I was stuck in the wheelchair and the casts for, oh, about eight or nine hours! And he had left the cast cutter with one of the medical assistants, who finally got me out of there at the end of the day.”
When asked if he could keep the mat, he replied: “Nobody knows where it is…and that includes Mike Judge! I saw him when he brought me in for (the 2009 film). Extract …. We had a nice conversation, and that’s one of the things I asked him: “Where’s the Jump to Conclusions mat?” He said, “He’s gone.” »
Riehle, one of seven children, was born May 12, 1948, in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. His mother, Mary Margaret, was a nurse; his father, Herbert, who worked at the post office, died when he was 2 years old.
He graduated in 1970 from the University of Notre Dame, where he acted in plays, built sets and served as a director, then studied German abroad.
Riehle gained acting experience at the Oakland University Drama Academy in Rochester, Michigan, and then performed in numerous regional theaters in the Pacific Northwest. This led to him working as an extra in Cogburn Rooster (1975), starring John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn, and his first big-screen speaking role as a bartender in Walk in joy (1977), with Desi Arnaz Jr. and Mélanie Griffith.
Riehle arrived on Broadway in 1986 with a role in the Emily Mann drama. Execution of justicecentered on the trial of Dan White, who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978.
In 1999, he returned to Broadway to play corrupt ex-cop Pat McGloin alongside Kevin Spacey in a revival of The Iceman is comingnominated for five Tony Awards.
Riehle’s film resume is included Black rain (1989), Fried green tomatoes (1991), Shadows and fog (1991), Free Willy (1993), Evidence set (1993), Stuart saves his family (1995), Executive decision (1996), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), Mercury rising (1998), The Fluffer (2001), Bridesmaids (2011) and The cowboy killer (2026).
He also played Principal Ed Rooney in the 1990-91 NBC adaptation of Ferris Bueller and has appeared over the years on The west wing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The golden girls, Boston Legal Department, emergency, NCIS, Modern family, Los Angeles Law, NCIS, The middle, Brown And Barry.
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