This prolific actor may not have been the star of these pictures but he brought a depth that made his time onscreen count.
Ned Beatty, who died on Sunday at 83, was the quintessential character actor. He looked like a regular guy, not a movie star, so he didn’t play leading roles — he played supporting characters, best friends, background figures and bureaucrats. He did so in 165 films and television shows before retiring quietly in 2013, and he always understood the assignment; some projects were great, others less so, but Beatty always shone Here are a few of his highlights, and where you can watch them. 1972 Rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play. Beatty, who cut his teeth on the stage, made his film debut in John Boorman’s adaptation of James Dickey’s novel of the same name. As one of four Atlanta businessmen on a camping trip in the Georgia backwoods, Beatty deftly conveys the discomfort of a man deeply out of his element with his outdoorsy pals. He’s then singled out for the most excruciating humiliation by the locals, who make sport of harassing and assaulting the out-of-towners: he’s raped at gunpoint and forced to “squeal like a pig,” in one of the most disturbing scenes of its era. This was a tough, demanding role, but Beatty was up to the task, playing the character’s considerable trauma and regret with gut-wrenching depth. 1975 Rent on Vudu. Buy on Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play. Robert Altman’s critically acclaimed mosaic of America just before the Bicentennial deployed a stacked cast of characters — 24 of them, including several country music performers who demand the attention and focus of everyone around them. Rather than try to compete, Beatty leans back. His character, Del Reese, is a power broker — the lawyer for a Nashville star and an organizer for an enigmatic presidential candidate — and Beatty, as in many of his best performances, is not afraid to underplay, speaking softly and wielding his (minimal) power only when necessary. But he makes every moment count: A brief scene of strained interaction with his wife and children tells us everything we need to know about how much he’s prioritized his work over his family. 1976 Rent or buy on Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Vudu and Google Play. In dramatizing how Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the story of the Watergate burglary and its cover-up, the director Alan J.
