Emmy-Winning Actor Michael Jeter Dies
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, The Associated Press
Michael Jeter, the character actor who won a supporting actor Emmy as a shrimpy assistant football coach on CBS’s “Evening Shade” and was known on “Sesame Street” as The Other Mr. Noodle, has died, his publicist said Monday. He was 50.
Jeter’s body was found in his Hollywood Hills home Sunday, publicist Dick Guttman said. Friends said they had communicated with him as recently as Saturday, Guttman added.
An autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death. Guttman said Jeter, who was HIV-positive but had been in good health, apparently died of natural causes.
Jeter had been filming the Christmas movie “The Polar Express.” Guttman said the producers believe there is enough footage to preserve Jeter’s role in the film.
Jeter, a slim, 5-foot-4 actor with thinning red hair, bushy mustache and a broad grin, played tough runts, sniveling wimps and big-hearted underdogs.
“I often see myself in my private life as being a pinched and confined person. When I get on the stage I can open up,” he said in a 1992 interview.
Among his favorite roles was the kindly Mr. Noodle on PBS’s children’s show “Sesame Street.” The character was nicknamed The Other Mr. Noodle when Jeter took over the role from Bill Irwin. The two Noodles, the show explained, were brothers.
“Kids would recognize him and come running up to him, ‘Mr. Noodle! Mr. Noodle,'” Guttman recalled. “He really loved that.”
On “Evening Shade,” which ran from 1990 to 1994, Jeter played the blustery assistant football coach Herman Stiles opposite the calm, paternal lead character played by Burt Reynolds. He won his Emmy in 1992.
He had film roles as a kindhearted mental patient in 1998’s “Patch Adams,” a mouse-loving prisoner in 1999’s “The Green Mile” and a dinosaur-hunting mercenary in 2001’s “Jurassic Park III.”
Jeter started as a stage actor and won a 1990 supporting actor Tony Award as provincial German Jewish bookkeeper Otto Kringelein in the musical “Grand Hotel.”
Jeter grew up in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., and studied acting at Memphis State University.
He worked in theater and in small film roles in the 1970s and ’80s, but after two bouts of drug and alcohol abuse he decided the irregular life of a performer was too much for him.
He became a legal secretary and abandoned acting until a casting director sought him out in 1987. He was offered a small role in CBS’s “Designing Women,” made by the same people who would later produce “Evening Shade.”
© 2003 The Associated Press
Jeter’s many guest roles in film and TV always amused me, from his stint on “Designing Women” to his appearance in “Tales of the City” as the detestable social columnist Carson Calas. He will be missed.
It’s the last week of September and as I read this, my mouth is wide open from shock. Were was I when this guy was taken away from us!!! I don’t understand why I dind’t hear of this before now. I saw his picture flash quickly, too quickly, during the obits on the Emmy’s. I couldn’t believe it. he’s gone. He was truly the best actor around. I’m so sad to know that I won’t be seeing his talent anymore. And only 50!! What a shame. I’m so sad. I send my sincere sympathies to his family and friends and to his partner.
Just watched Open Range and were amazed to find out at the end of the credits that Michael Jeter had passed on. That should really have been a top news story but if it was publicized we missed it. Our sincere sympathies to his partner, family and friends.
I didn’t hear about this for almost a year. I saw it on the Golden Globes. How did I miss this! I LOVE Michael Jeter. He was amazing in evry rold I saw him in. I’m so sorry that he’s passed on, but we can all revel in his amazing talent and films.
Talk about finding out late…I saw Michael in the “tribute” during last night’s Oscar broadcast and was completely flabbergasted. I will forever be touched by his Tony acceptance speech for Grand Hotel and I am still blown away by the memory of his performance that night. I watched the videotape at least two dozen times; in those few short minutes I became a lifetime Michael Jeter fan and can listen to his “Otto” on the Grand Hotel cast album over and over again. He was the kind of actor who thrilled and surprised me every time he popped up in a film or TV show I happened to be seeing. I was also lucky enough to run into him in Sam French in Studio City some years ago…a definite highlight in my life! To think, if I hadn’t been to “respectfully” standoffish I may have gotten to know him a bit. Well, he’s given me plenty of nice memories and I look forward to “one last time” in The Polar Express.
Ohh… That’s so terrible! That guy was so great! That’s such a bad new.. I was watching the Golden Globe when I discover that he was death. I react like “Oh my god! He can’t be death!”I just stopped watching the golden..it was too painfull!… He was one of the most great actor of the world! His funny face…I will miss that! (sorry for my english.. I’m french!)
I’m so sorry for everyone of’s family and friend… And i’m sorry for everyone who liked him!