Actor Ned Beatty, who starred in Superman and Deliverance, died on Sunday, June 13, 2021, of natural causes. He was 83 years old.
Beatty had over 160 film and TV roles, including in 1978’s Superman as Lex Luthor’s goofy sidekick Otis. His film debut came in Deliverance, a movie about a backwoods canoe trip that goes horribly wrong and leaves Beatty’s character sexually assaulted. In 1976, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Network.
Born on July 6, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky, Beatty sang in a cappella groups while growing up. He worked on stage on Broadway, as well as in Washington, DC and Abingdon, Virginia.
After Deliverance, he had guest spots in The Waltons, Gunsmoke, and M*A*S*H, and movies like All the President’s Men and Network. In the late ‘70s he was in The Rockford Files, a TV movie version of Our Town, Exorcist II: The Heretic, starred in the series Szysznyk, and was in 1941.
In the ‘80s, he returned as Otis for Superman II, was in The Incredible Shrinking Woman, The Toy, Back to School, The Big Easy, and The Trouble with Spies.
Beatty was in the 1990 version of Captain America, starred in Prelude to a Kiss, Rudy, had a recurring role in Roseanne, starred in the show Homicide: Life on the Street, and he was in He Got Game and Life.
His later roles were in Shooter, Charlie Wilson’s War, voiced Lotso in Toy Story 3 and the Mayor in Rango, and his final role was in 2013’s Baggage Claim.