Rip Torn: a wild man of stage and screen and a titan of US TV comedy
His fights with Dennis Hopper and Norman Mailer are the stuff of Hollywood legend, but he is best remembered as the cynical and cantankerous Artie, producer of The Larry Sanders ShowRip Torn: a life in pictures
British hell-raisers have tended to be fruity-voiced, self-aware thesps. American ones are more serious, more macho, more scary. And the man whom many believe to be the scariest of all has left us. The brilliant comic actor Rip Torn has died: an indefatigable, long-lasting performer on film, stage and TV who continued working until almost the very end. But alongside Rip Torn’s screen credits are the tales told of him as the legendary drinker and wild man, a gonzo veteran of the brawling 1960s counterculture.
