JOHN HEARD

(7 March 1946 - 21 July 2017)

The American actor John Heard, who has died following surgery at the age of 71, had a good start at the beginning of his career. However, although he was in a huge number of films, he never became true leading man material. After appearing on the New York stage from 1974 he graduated to film and television. His first film role was in Between the Lines (1977), Joan Micklin Silver’s movie about life on an alternative newspaper in Boston. It heralded a sitcom on television but not for long. Heard then appeared in a number of films, the best of which was probably Joan Micklin Silver’s Head Over Heels (aka Chilly Scenes of Winter, 1979). He played Jack Kerouac in Heart Beat, was Alex Cutter in Cutter’s Way and co-starred in Cat People. After several so-so pictures, he was cast by Martin Scorsese in After Hours as Tom the barman and he was in The Trip to Bountiful with Geraldine Page. He worked with Robert Redford on The Milagro Beanfield War, co-starred in Big and appeared in Beaches. Home Alone and its sequel were huge hits because of Macaulay Culkin, whereas the more thoughtful Awakenings was very moving and a better film. In the Line of Fire saw Heard working with Clint Eastwood; with Julia Roberts on The Pelican Brief; in Costa-Gavras’s Betrayed and with Goldie Hawn in Deceived. After more films and TV work, Heard appeared in Ed Harris’s film about [Jackson] Pollock (2000), but the good parts by then were all behind him, even though he never stopped working. He has six more films yet to be released. He was married to Lana Pritchard, Sharon Heard (two children) and very briefly to the actress Margot Kidder. He also has a son, Jack, by a former girlfriend.

MICHAEL DARVELL