By Travis Johnson
Powers Boothe has died. The hugely prolific character actor passed away in his sleep of natural causes on May 14.
A Texan by birth, Boothe was a cowboy by inclination, appearing in several westerns, neo or otherwise. His ranking achievement in the genre is almost unarguably his turn as the rustler Curly Bill Brocius in George P. Cosmatos’ 1993 oater Tombstone, although we’ll accept his run as the Machiavellian pimp, Cy Tolliver, in Deadwood. Elsewhere, he set stetson to head Oliver Stone’s U-Turn, Walter Hill’s Extreme Prejudice, and the 2011 indie thriller, Guns, Girls and Gambling.
When he wasn’t in a cowboy hat, Boothe was frequently in uniform: John Milius’s Red Dawn, Tony Richardson’s Blue Sky, the 2000 naval drama Men of Honour, and even The Avengers, where he briefly cameo-ed as one of the shadowy cabal controlling S.H.I.E.L.D. That wasn’t his only brush with super-heroes – his gravelly tones made him a natural for the voice over booth(e), and he brought villains such as Gorilla Grodd and even Lex Luthor to life.
It was on television that Boothe received the most critical acclaim, including an Emmy for his role as the eponymous cult leader in the 1980 miniseries Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. Boothe frequently crossed back and forth between the big and small screens; his last live action TV role was on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where he reprised his Avengers role.
His is survived by his wife, Pam Cole, and two adult children.
