M Emmet Walsh death: Blade Runner and Knives Out star dies aged 88

Blade Runner star M. Emmet Walsh has died aged 88, his longtime manager Sandy Joseph has confirmed.

Walsh died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday at Kerbs Memorial Hospital in St. Albans, Vermont, according to ET.

The outlet reports he is survived by his niece, Meagan Walsh, nephew, Kevin Walsh, and grandnephews, Emmet and Elliot.

READ MORE: Melissa George announces the birth of her third son after secret pregnancy

His acting career spanned more than 60 years and included hundreds of stints in TV, film and theatre.

Walsh made his screen debut in 1969, when he starred in Alice’s Restaurant, but didn’t come to prominence until the late 1970s.

His roles in 1977 hockey comedy film Slap Shot and the 1978 crime film Straight Time made him a household name and saw him join a number of major blockbusters in the years that followed.

In 1982, Walsh played Captain Harry Bryant in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi cult classic Blade Runner, opposite Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard.

READ MORE: Em Rata shows off her ‘divorce rings’ following split

“I don’t know if I really understood what in the hell it was all about,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of the flick in 2017, decades after filming.

“We [the cast] didn’t know what to say or to think or do! We didn’t know what in the hell we had done! The only one who seemed to get it was Ridley.”

In 1984 he nabbed one of his biggest roles in Blood Simple, which earned him the 1986 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

He continued to act through the 1990s, starring in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), and Christmas with the Kranks (2004).

When he wasn’t starring in big-budget films, Walsh took TV parts in shows like Little House on the Prairie, The X-Files, and Frasier.

READ MORE: Rumer Willis shares tribute to father Bruce amid dementia battle

He even appeared on the stage a few times, famously performing with Al Pacino in a production of Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? on Broadway in 1969.

Most recently, Walsh appeared in Rian Johnson’s murder-mystery comedy Knives Out as an aging security guard.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.