The death of leading American character actor Kevin McCarthy has been announced today, he was 96. He made his name on the stage, memorably in Death of a Salesman which he recreated in the film version. This set him on a path of around two hundred television and movie credits, and he still found time for theatre, but it is perhaps as the lead in the classic sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers that he will be best remembered. He recreated the role for the 1978 remake in an amusing cameo, but elsewhere enjoyed a following for such films as The Misfits (Marilyn Monroe's final work), The Prize, The Best Man, Mirage, Kansas City Bomber, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, the original Piranha (the first of many collaborations with director Joe Dante), The Howling, My Tutor, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Innerspace, UHF, Matinee, Just Cause and Anthony Hopkins' Slipstream. That's not to mention a list of TV guest star roles longer than your arm which also made him a recognisable and much-appreciated face for generations.
