Gerrit Graham, 1949 – 2026

Character actor and songwriter Gerrit Graham, 76, died on Sept. 15. Graham was a favorite of director Brian De Palma, who cast him in The Phantom of the Paradise, Hi, Mom!, Greetings, and Home Movie; his other movies included Tunnel Vision, Pretty Baby, Demon Seed, Used Cars, Old Boyfriends, The Man with One Red Shoe, TerrorVision, Frozen Assets, and Sidekicks. He was a regular on TV from the 1970s-2010s; though he never starred in a series, he turned up in Laverne & Shirley, Baretta, Starsky and Hutch, The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, Sledge Hammer!, Fame, Dallas, My Two Dads, China Beach, and Seinfeld, among many others (he also provided the voice for Jay’s dad in The Critic). In addition to stage work, Graham was also a songwriter, working with The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, writing with him for the groups Bobby and the Midnites and RatDog. On being such a versatile character actor, Graham admitted, “I have a tremendously varied resume, but it's been the bane of my career that I'm so versatile.”