A wonderful character actor named Barnard Hughes has died

He was 90. As is my wont at times like these, I want to talk about performances of his that meant something to me.

As the CNN obituary notes, he won the Tony award for the title role in the stage production of "Da," by Hugh Leonard. I never saw the play but he recreated the part 10 years later in the remarkable film version opposite Martin Sheen. To describe the character makes the performance seem less than it is; yes he's a curmudgeon, yes he's crotchety and "cranky." But none of this speaks to how delightful the performance and the film (shot on location in Ireland, some of the landscape is breathtaking) is.

Those three C's were typical of the kind of roles in which Hughes tended to be cast, but he was usually able to put some spin, either of comedy or just-below-the-surface sweetness on them. Take his part in the underrated movie"Doc Hollywood," wherin he played the very picture of the old country doctor who seemingly lives to bedevil his young city "colleague" played by Michael J. Fox.

You may remember him as the grandpa who got the last words in "The Lost Boys." Dramatically, those last words are a cop-out that simply scream "we thought more about the SFX than the script," but Hughes delivers them so well it's hard to care. As big SFX movies go, it's an almost Shakespearian moment.

He was also Walter Gibbs and the dual role of Dumont in the groundbreaking "Tron." When I think of Hughes in that film I think of the dignity and humanity he brought to his roles, both as the human Gibbs who is being pushed out of the company he founded, and the program Dumont, guardian of I/O. "Tron" has more good actors in it than you might think, but Hughes towers above them all.

I think the first place I remember seeing him was in the title role in the sitcom "Mr. Merlin" which I remember liking when I was 10 but who knows what I'd think of it now.

"Mr. Merlin:" Why yes, yes it was the '80s.

I don't quite know what else to say about him-except that he's another actor who, like John Spencer, I'd always kinda hoped to be good enough to write for one day. I send good thoughts to his family and friends, those that were priviliged enough to know and not merely admire him.

Rest in peace, Da. And remember...you're not to touch that teapot!