Charles Sidney Grodin has left the stage... RIP

Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. And to many in America he was the probably best known thanks to the blockbuster “Beethoven” about a dog with that name that changed his families life. Great family movie, and it spawned sequels which Grodin who began his acting career in the 1960’s was also in. He started in the 60’s appearing in TV serials including The Virginian. After a small part in Rosemary’s Baby in 1968, he played the lead in Elaine May‘s The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and supporting roles in Mike Nichols‘s Catch-22 (1970) and Warren Beatty‘s Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Grodin’s deadpan, straight-man delivery became familiar as a supporting actor in many Hollywood comedies of the era, including Real Life (1979), Seems Like Old Times (1980), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), Ishtar (1987), and Dave (1993). Grodin co-starred in the action comedy Midnight Run (1988) and in the family film Beethoven (1992). He made frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.

In the mid-1990s, Grodin retired from acting, and wrote several autobiographies, and became a talk show host on CNBC and in 2000 a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. He returned to acting with a handful of roles in the mid-2010s, including in Louis C.K.‘s FX show Louie and Noah Baumbach‘s film While We’re Young (2014).

Grodin won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special in 1978 for the Paul Simon Special alongside Chevy Chase, Lorne Michaels, Paul Simon, and Lily Tomlin. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Heartbreak Kid in 1972. He won Best Actor at the 1988 Valladolid International Film Festival for Midnight Run, and the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance in Dave in 1993.

He was one hell of an underrated actor, and in a world of people who come and go, and who have a short shelf life as an actor he managed to carve a great long career, and one with tons of respect from his peers. A true legend of cinema is passed…. RIP