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Michael Jeter
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Michael Jeter (August 26, 1952 – March 30, 2003) was an American actor. Born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Jeter was a student at Memphis State University when his interests changed from medicine to acting. He pursued his initial stage career in Baltimore, Maryland, as he had heard it was hard to get work in New York without an equity card. His woebegone look, extreme flexibility and high energy led Tommy Tune to cast him in the Off-Broadway Cloud 9 and, on Broadway, in a memorable role in the musical Grand Hotel, for which he won a Tony Award in 1990. He was open about his homosexuality and troubles with
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Although he was a small, slightly nerdish looking fellow, Michael Jeter was a born scene-stealer. On top of that he was an excellent actor who created wonderfully complex and heartwarming characters. He outshone the stars in most of the films and TV series he appeared in proving him a truly great character actor. He was diminutive at 5 feet, four inches, with a balding head of curly red hair, sparkling eyes framed by bushy brows and an ever so slightly, raspy tenor voice. He was often cast as a small, timid looking man in a larger-than-life situation; be it an assistant football coach, a convict or a mental patient and he was more than up to the task. He was nominated for many awards and won a Tony in 1990 for “Grand Hotel” and an Emmy in 1992 for “Evening Shade.” He was born on August 26, 1952 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
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From All Movie Guide: With his trademark red moustache, personable smile, and childlike demeanor, longtime character actor Michael Jeter brought smiles to children nationwide with his role on Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle's Brother. Aside from his memorable role on that children's television mainstay, Jeter could ... be seen in a number of memorable film roles in such efforts as Miller's Crossing (1990) and The Fisher King (1991). Chances are, if you don't recognize his name you would certainly recognize his face. Born in Lawrenceburg, TN, in August of 1952, Jeter first opted to follow a career in medicine, though a stint at Memphis State University found the creative young student leaning ever closer to a career as an actor. Taking on minor film roles beginning with 1979's Hairspray, the burgeoning young actor would subsequently appear in such films as Milos Foreman's Ragtime (1981) and Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), though early struggles with alcohol and substance abuse threatened to sideline his screen career in the mid-'80s.
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Michael Jeter plays good, old-fashioned sissies. He's short, and slight. He has a high-pitched voice. He throws like a girl. Because he's not only gay but ... Southern, he tends to play folksy weirdos with names like Herman and Carson and Earl and Quincy and Sticks Varona and Toto and Dibble and Avron and Uncle Jude and L. Ron Bumquist and The Chicken Man. He works best in an ensemble cast where his slight stature sets him apart from the crowd. You know, in The Green Mile he's the little bitty convict.
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Award winning actor Michael Jeter is dead at the age of fifty. Authorities haven't yet determined the exact cause of Jeter's death... several years ago, he did disclose that he was HIV positive.
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Jeter's long list of film credits is a testament to his versatility as a character actor. A cartoonish bad guy in the Disney movie Air Bud (1997, directed by Charles Martin Smith), Whoopi Goldberg's comic sidekick priest in the slapstick Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993, directed by Emile Ardolino and Bill Duke), and a kindly mental patient in Patch Adams (1998, directed by Tom Shadyac), Jeter ... gave a poignant performance as a homeless cabaret singer with AIDS in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991).
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Michael Jeter