Ned Beatty passed away in his home on Sunday surrounded by his family, according to TMZ. He will be remembered as a prolific actor who was consistently working starting all the way back in 1972 when he played Bobby Tripe in the southern creep-show, Deliverance.
Beatty’s Early Life
Ned Thomas Beatty was born on July 6, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky to Margaret and Charles William Beatty. Beatty got his start singing at a very young age. He would sing in gospel and barbershop quartets in Kentucky and the local churches. This would eventually earn him a scholarship to sing in the choir at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
At the age of 19, he made his stage debut with a part in Wilderness Road, an outdoor-historical pageant in Berea, Kentucky. Over the years Beatty would work at the Barter Theatre in Virginia before later returning to Kentucky to work in the Louisville area where he would play Willy Loman in the 1966 production of Death of a Salesman at the Actors Studio in Louisville.
Professional Career
Ned Beatty’s long filmography got started in the backwoods thriller Deliverance which was released in 1972. It revolves around 4 businessmen who decide to take a vacation in Georgia. They eventually encounter a couple of mountain men and things get extremely uncomfortable after that.
After that debut, he would go on to be a consistent actor for decades. Ned Beatty’s filmography would consist of nearly everything from stage plays, movies, and tv shows. He was in The President’s Men, Network, MAS*H, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Hawai Five-O, Superman, Nashville 99, Murder She Wrote. Roseanne, Homicide: Life on the Street, Life, Shooter, Law & Order, Toy Story 3 and that’s just naming the ones I was familiar with. Ned Beatty has done and possibly seen it all in terms of acting.
Our condolences go out to Beatty’s family at this time.
