title: Richard Libertini
text: Richard Joseph Libertini (May 21, 1933 – January 7, 2016) was an American stage, film and television actor.
  
  He was known for playing character roles and his ability to speak in numerous accents. His films include Catch-22 (1970), The In-Laws (1979), Popeye (1980), Sharky's Machine (1981), All of Me (1984), Fletch (1985), Fletch Lives (1989), Awakenings (1990), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), and Dolphin Tale (2011).
  
  Early life 
  Libertini was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from Emerson College in Boston. During his early years, Libertini worked in New York City and in Chicago. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career during the 1960s.
  
  Career 
  He was an original cast member of The Mad Show, a 1966 Off-Broadway musical-comedy produced by Mad magazine. His first film appearances were in The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), Don't Drink the Water (1969) and Catch-22 (1970).
  
  Two of his more memorable film roles came in the comedies Fletch (1985), in which he played Chevy Chase's character's doubting editor, a role he repeated in the 1989 sequel Fletch Lives, and The In-Laws (1979), in which he played General Garcia, an insane Latin American dictator whose closest advisor was a cartoon face drawn on his own hand a la Señor Wences. He portrayed Nosh, an electronics expert who is the childhood best friend of Burt Reynolds's character, in Sharky's Machine (1981).
  
  He also played a traveling vaudevillian in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), the greengrocer George W. Geezil in Robert Altman's Popeye (1980), a Hispanic priest in Best Friends (1982), the servant Giuseppe in Unfaithfully Yours (1984), spiritual advisor Prahka Lasa ("Back in Bowl!") in All of Me (1984), the bandit Dijon in Disney's animated feature film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990),  and a rabbi in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).
  
  On television, Libertini was a series regular in the first season of Soap as the Godfather. He appeared as three different characters in episodes of Barney Miller. He also appeared in "Evaluation" (1978) and "Middle Age" (January 1979). He guest starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Accession" as a Bajoran named Akorem Laan, and in the Sonny with a Chance episode "Dakota's Revenge" as Izzy, an insane mechanic. He also voiced Wally Llama on Animaniacs, and starred in three short-lived sitcoms: Family Man (1988), in which he played a middle-aged comedy writer who married a much younger woman and became a father late in life; The Fanelli Boys (1990–1991), in which he played an Italian priest; and Pacific Station (1991–1992), in which he played a police detective.
  
  Libertini appeared on the TV show Supernatural. His final film role was that of a fisherman in the 2011 film Dolphin Tale. From October 2011 through January 2012, Libertini appeared on Broadway as a rabbi in "Honeymoon Motel," the Woody Allen-penned segment of Relatively Speaking.
  
  Personal life 
  Libertini married actress Melinda Dillon on September 30, 1963; he had one child with her, Richard. They divorced in 1978.
  
  Libertini died at the age of 82 in Venice, California, on January 7, 2016, from cancer. He had been diagnosed two years prior.
  
  Selected filmography 
  
   The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) - Pockets 
   Don't Drink the Water (1969) - Father Drobney
   The Out-of-Towners (1970) - Baggage Man - Boston
   Catch-22 (1970) - Brother John
   Lady Liberty (1971) - Tim (uncredited)
   I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now? (1975) - Cafe Waiter / Jack Kirsten
   Fire Sale (1977) - Painter
   Days of Heaven (1978) - Vaudeville Leader
   The In-Laws (1979) - Gen. Garcia
   Popeye (1980) - Geezil
   Sharky's Machine (1981) - Nosh
   Soup for One (1982) - Angelo
   Best Friends (1982) - Jorge Medina
   Going Berserk (1983) - Rev. Sun Yi Day
   Deal of the Century (1983) - Masaggi
   Unfaithfully Yours (1984) - Giuseppe
   All of Me (1984) - Prahka Lasa
   Fletch (1985) - Frank Walker
   Big Trouble (1986) - Dr. Lopez
   Betrayed (1988) - Sam Kraus
   Fletch Lives (1989) - Frank Walker
   Animal Behavior (1989) - Doctor Parrish
   The Lemon Sisters (1990) - Nicholas Panas
   DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) - Dijon (voice)
   Awakenings (1990) - Sidney
   The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) - Ed Rifkin
   The Fanelli Boys (1990–1991) - Father Angelo Lombardi
   Nell (1994) - Alexander Paley
   Cultivating Charlie (1994) - Glosser
   ‘’Columbo’’ (1998) - Episode: Ashes to Ashes - Sheik Yarami
   Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) - Rabbi Gelb (uncredited)
   Telling You (1998) - Mr. P
   The 4th Tenor (2002) - Vincenzo
   Grilled (2006) - Rabbi Silver
   Everybody Wants to Be Italian (2007) - Papa Aldo Tempesti
   A Grandpa for Christmas (2007) - Karl Sugarman
   Dolphin Tale (2011) - Fisherman
   How to Become an Outlaw (2014) - Judge
  
  References
  
  External links 
   
  
  1933 births
  2016 deaths
  20th-century American male actors
  21st-century American male actors
  American male film actors
  American male stage actors
  American male television actors
  American male voice actors
  American people of Italian descent
  Deaths from cancer in California
  Emerson College alumni
  Male actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts