JON POLITO

(29 December 1950 - 1 September 2016)

The American character actor Jon Polito was often seen in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, namely Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski and The Man Who Wasn’t There. Perhaps never a star, he was, however, a face you might recognise without necessarily putting a name to it. With over two hundred film and TV credits to his name he was a very busy man, starting out on television in 1981 and working continuously up until his death. His last film, The Maestro, is due out in 2017. Over the years he played cops, detectives, hoods, judges, bankers and other businessmen with equal aplomb, in films such as The Freshman, Highlander, The Crow, The Tailor of Panama, The Singing Detective, Flags of Our Fathers and American Gangster. As well as working for the Coens, Polito was directed by Clint Eastwood, Ridley Scott, Michael Apted, Tom Hanks, Andrew Bergman, Tim Burton and many others.  On stage he appeared in American Buffalo, Curse of the Aching Heart, Total Abandon and a revival of Death of a Salesman, while on television Polito appeared in everything from As the World Turns (1983) and Crime Story (1986-8) to Desperate Housewives (2005) and Modern Family (2014-16). 

MICHAEL DARVELL