People USA – July 29, 2019

passages

Happy

Birthday!

Jennifer Lopez, 50

July 24, 1969

Matt LeBlanc, 52

July 25, 1967

Sandra Bullock, 55

July 26, 1964

The Larry Sanders Show and Men in Black star

had a wild streak but an even wilder talent

Rip Torn: 1931-2019

Rip Torn, an actor who com-

bined gruff bearishness with

razor-sharp comic timing,

found his greatest success

late in his career: He earned

five Emmy nominations and

one win as Artie, the take-

charge talk show producer on

Garry Shandling’s classic

HBO series The Larry

Sanders Show (1992-98).

Torn, who died at 88 in

Lakeville, Conn., July 9 (no

cause of death was revealed),

played the part with a barking

energy that would have been

terrifying if it weren’t so funny.

In fact, alpha males in business

suits were something of a spe-

cialty for him, providing him

scene-stealing moments in

Men in Black and on NBC’s 30

Rock. Born Elmore Rual Torn Jr.

in Temple, Texas—“Rip” was a

common nickname for men in

his family—he liked to say that

his acting credo was to “play

drama as comedy, and comedy

as drama.” Married three times

(to actresses Ann Wedge-

worth, Geraldine Page

and Amy Wright), he

could be a hard-drinking

hell-raiser. During the

filming of writer Norman

Mailer’s 1970 movie

Maidstone, he attacked

Mailer with a hammer,

and Mailer bit his ear

while the cameras were

rolling. “I have certain

flaws in my makeup,” he

once admitted. “Some-

thing called irascibility.”

He was too much of a

nonconformist for stan-

dard Hollywood success

(his younger cousin

Sissy Spacek has fared

better). But he seldom

failed to impress critics or

fans—and won a Support-

ing Actor nomination for

1983’s Cross Creek.

Remembering him, friend

Elizabeth Ashley (Russian

Doll) lovingly described

Torn to the New York Post

as “broken crystal,” then

added: “If there is a God, Rip is

in hand-to-hand combat with

him, because Rip will argue his

way in and fight his way out.”

—TOM GLIATTO

By Ale Russian

“to the truth coming

out.”•Rapper Soulja Boy,

28, was released from

prison after serving three

months for violating

probation. He was arrested

on charges of carrying a

loaded gun in public in 2014.

Deaths

Olympic gold medal-

winning boxer Pernell

Whitaker died at 55 after

being hit by a vehicle in

Virginia. •Everwood and

Star Trek: Insurrection

actress Stephanie Niznik

died at 52. No cause of

death was revealed at press

time. •Charles Levin, a

veteran actor who appeared

on Seinfeld, is believed dead

at 70 after human remains

were found in a remote area

of Oregon. He was reported

missing on July 8.

32 July 29, 2019 PEOPLE

Torn said he signed up for

The Larry Sanders Show (below

left, with Janeane Garofalo,

Garry Shandling and Jeffrey

Tambor) for the paycheck, but

the role become his favorite.

Below: on 30 Rock with

Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

CL

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