Peter Postlethwaite Died

Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite passed away on Sunday due to complications from cancer. He was 64.

A representative for Mr. Postlethwaite confirmed his passing in Shropshire, western England. Pete Postlethwaite is survived by his wife Jacqui and two children Will, 21, and daughter Lily, 14.

Peter Postlethwaite

Peter Postlethwaite had one of those faces — weathered, folded, kneaded, endlessly interesting — that demanded to be on camera, even as it denied him any possibility of leading man status. And yet, in the latter half of his career, Postlethwaite made a convincing case for the character actor as star. 

The turning point, of course, was a hard-earned and wholly unexpected 1993 Academy Award nomination for “In the Name of the Father”. His granite-hard and quietly mournful performance as Maguire Seven convict Giuseppe Conlon joining a gallery of performances last year as one of the finest Oscar fields in history. 

He could not win, but the payoff was immense.

 It  gave Peter Postlethwaite  greater visibility than he’d likely ever dreamed of. Hollywood offered him roles in “The Usual Suspects,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (in which he was better than any other actor would have bothered to be, and, paired with his work in “Amistad” the same year, earned him a “best actor in the world” endorsement from Steven Spielberg.