Well, this is a shame. Miguel was a great character actor who could play everything from drama to thriller to comedy. One of my favorite line readings in any movie is his delivery during the climactic battle during Hot Shots: Part Deux.
“War. It’s fantastic!”
I’ll miss his face and his voice.
Oh shit, I loved that guy in everything I saw him in, ESPECIALLY Robocop. RIP.
This is awful. He was in some great things but to me he’ll always be Albert Rosenfeld, forensic pathologist for the FBI in Twin Peaks.
RIP Miguel. He was one of those guys who seemed to pop up everywhere. His role list on IMDB is massive and dates back to the 1981 where he first appears on the Hollywood scene in Magnum PI. The character he was playing on NCIS LA was experiencing health issues, which seemed to be cancer or something of that nature ( he was keeping it hidden from the others ). I’m guessing that wasn’t a coincidence.
Oh no. One of the very few actors I happen to share a name with.
May he rest in peace.
Damn, it was always a pleasant surprise when he showed up onscreen in one of his countless roles. RIP.
Jesus, this sucks.
IMO Robocop is basically a perfect film, and Ferrer is a big reason why. (Second link spoilerized because the title gives away info to those benighted souls who haven’t seen the movie.)
Also, the guy was basically acting royalty – his father Jose Ferrer immortalized Cyrano in the '50s (still not sure whether I prefer him or Depardieu in the role) and kicked butt in The Caine Mutiny, too.
edit: Jesus, his mom was Rosemary Clooney. Had no idea.
I saw Ferrer in a movie called The Courier a few years ago. It’s actually pretty decent considering that it’s just a throwaway action movie. Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the eponymous courier gets captured and interrogated. Well, tortured. They waterboard him, which seems like a tactical error when you want to torture someone in a movie. We know from the Bush Administration that waterboarding is a real dick movie, but in a movie, it doesn’t look like that big a deal. So someone has a washcloth on his face and water gets poured on it? Big deal. I do that to myself when I take a bath.
Anyway, the interrogators are Lili Taylor and Miguel Ferrer. They’re playing a wacky sadistic couple. It’s actually a pretty fun scene for setting up a pair of bad guys. One of the reasons it stood out for me is the shirt Miguel Ferrer was wearing.
I have that exact same shirt.
It’s kind of like when you see a scene from a movie that was shot on your street.
RIP, Miguel Ferrer. 61 is too young. We should have gotten a dozen more scenes like that one with Lili Taylor.
-Tom
Me too. Twin Peaks and of course Robocop. I read where he was reprising his role in the Twin Peaks reboot; hopefully they have him in the can already.
As one of QT3’s cancer survivors I checked out what they said he died from and while they weren’t specific in any other details they did mention it was throat cancer. (Tom’s and mine.)
Speak of the devil…
Couldn’t agree more. It’s just such a tight movie that knows what it’s doing, has the perfect amount of momentum, and doesn’t waste a moment. So great.
Geez. Only 5 years older than me.
Enjoyed his work a great deal.
And that voice!
Okay. Dangit. If you’re not going to do it I’m going to.
Gordon has written some really great stuff about movies. And his posts on this movie in particular, on his blog Picture’s Up, were ones I really liked. This post of his, Shot by Shot: Robocop Arrives, is one of my favorite posts, ever.
-xtien
Reading that after all those years makes me want to buy a Hermes bag!
I just realised that guy didn’t wash his hand before caressing Ferrer’s hair. A very nice touch.
RIP Ferrer
He always did well with the bad guy roles. I think I first saw him in Deepstar Six. He accidently detonated some nukes and released a sea monster. Ended up trying to surface in an escape pod and gets explosively decompressed. God, 12 year old me loved that movie.
I totally forgot he was so awesome in “Twin Peaks” until I listened to one of my favorite podcasts this morning. Damn he was good in that.
-xtien
“Welcome to amateur hour.”