Jon Polito dead: Coen brothers actor dies at 65
Actor Jon Polito has died at the age of 65 due to complications from cancer, EW has confirmed.
Polito was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, in 2011. His friend, director John McNaughton, first announced the news of his death via Facebook on Friday.
Polito was perhaps best known for his turns in Coen brothers films like The Big Lebowski, Miller’s Crossing, and Barton Fink, though he acted in over 150 movies. He nabbed stints on television and Broadway too, including the Tony Award-winning 1984 revival of Death of a Salesman, which was broadcast on CBS. He notably portrayed Det. Steve Crosetti in late ’90s police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street before leaving the show in “a major artistic parting of the ways.”
Over the course of his 35 year career, he also picked up parts in Seinfeld, Monk, Two and a Half Men, and American Gangster, and worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest names: Clint Eastwood, Michael Apted, Ridley Scott, John Boorman, Richard Benjamin, Steven Bochco, and Tim Burton, among others. In 2005 he received the L.A. Film Festival Award for excellence in acting, as well as the Maverick Spirit Award for outstanding achievement in Film and Television at the Cinequest Film Festival. He most recently appeared in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Bunheads, and Modern Family.
“I have gotten to work with [Marlon] Brando, Faye Dunaway, [Joel and Ethan] Coen, [James] Gandolfini, and [Albert] Finney,” Polito said in 2011. “I’ve never had another job, first the theater and then television and film.”
Polito is survived by his husband and longtime partner, actor Darryl Armbruster (Old School, Boiler Maker).
“Very sad to learn that my dear friend and collaborator, Jon Polito has passed away…R.I.P. old pal,” McNaughton wrote on Facebook. See his post below.
On Twitter, Polito’s Homicide costar Richard Belzer paid tribute to the late actor as well.
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