Actor Wilford Brimley, known for roles in The Thing and Cocoon and for being the Quaker Oats spokesperson died on Saturday, August 1, 2020. He had been ill with kidney issues for two months, according to his agent Lynda Bensky. He was 85 years old.

Recognized for his walrus mustache and stern look, he often played serious, even grumpy characters. Brimley was born on September 27, 1934 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prior to acting, he was in the Marines, was Howard Hughes’ bodyguard, and worked on ranches as a wrangler and blacksmith.

In the 1960s he started working as a stuntman, particularly as a riding extra for Westerns like True Grit, Lawman, and The Oregon Trail. In the mid-1970s, he a had recurring role on The Waltons as Horace Brimley. His film breakthrough came in 1979’s The China Syndrome as an engineer at a nuclear plant.

Brimley had a memorable small role in Absence of Malice, then starred in the popular alien horror film The Thing and the baseball drama The Natural. In ’85 he starred in the whimsical fantasy movie Cocoon as a retiree who finds a magical pool that returns him to his youth. He starred in Our House in the late ‘80s and starred in the Cocoon sequel Cocoon: The Return.

Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s he worked as a spokesperson for Quaker Oats, appearing in a cantankerous grandfatherly way. He also promoted Liberty Medical’s diabetes testing supplies, an illness that Brimley learned he had in the late ‘70s.

Brimley’s ‘90s roles included starring in The Firm as the intimidating William Devasher, then Hard Target, the narrator in Last of the Dogmen, and he was in the comedies My Fellow Americans and In & Out. He had a few roles scattered over the last 20 years, with his final appearance as the pastor in 2017’s I Believe.