In a career that lasted four decades, the great character actor Ned Beatty worked with a number of the greatest film directors in history, starting out with John Boorman and 1972’s “Deliverance,” in which he made his spectacular screen debut. From there, he went on to work with such screen legends as Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, John Huston, Mike Nichols and Spike Lee.
Beatty was nominated for an Academy Award for 1976’s “Network,” directed by Lumet, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for portraying an Irish tenor in 1991’s “Hear My Song.” Beatty did not appear in films until he was 35 years old and was immediately pegged as a character actor, a category in which he flourished. His other film credits include “Nashville,” “Superman,” “Wise Blood” and “Toy Story 3.” He died in 2021.
Tour our photo gallery ranking his 12 greatest screen performances from worst to best.
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12. WISE BLOOD (1979)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: John Huston. Writers: Benedict Fitzgerald, Michael Fitzgerald, based on the novel by Flannery O’Connor. Starring Brad Dourif, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty.
Beatty’s first collaboration with John Huston was in the great director’s film adaptation of the Flannery O’Connor novel that focused on Haze Moats (Brad Dourif), a war vet who creates the phony Church of Truth Without Christ and ordains himself as its preacher. Given his troubled past, Moats preaches with a dour outlook on life which initially attracts followers. A rival preacher, Hoover Shoates (Beatty) aka Onnie Jay Holy, sees an opportunity here and preaches a gospel of sunshine in an effort to poach some of Moats’ followers. Preachers provide big juicy roles for actors, and with Hoover, Beatty makes the most of the role here.
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11. COOKIE’S FORUNE (1999)
Image Credit: Joyce Rudolph/October/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Robert Altman. Writer: Anne Rapp. Starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Patricia Neal, Chris O’Donnell, Charles S. Dutton, Ned Beatty.
Beatty was reunited with his “Nashville” director Robert Altman for this delightful comedy set in a small Mississippi town where the local leading citizen, dowager Jewell-Mae “Cookie” Orcott (Patricia Neal), decides to end it all with a small handgun. Her much despised nieces, drama queen Camille (Glenn Close) and impossibly shy Cora (Julianne Moore), fear the shame that will befall the family once news of the suicide leaks out, so they conspire to make Cookie’s death look like a murder and set up Cookie’s handyman Willis (Charles S. Dutton) to take the fall. Yet no one in town believes that Willis did it, particularly top cop Lester Boyle (Beatty) who swears to Willis’ innocence because he had gone fishing with him. It’s one of the most fun films of Beatty’s career.
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10. HEAR MY SONG (1991)
Image Credit: British Screen/Windmill Lane/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Peter Chelsom. Writers: Peter Chelsom, Adrian Dunbar. Starring Ned Beatty, Adrian Dunbar, Tara Fitzgerald, David McCallum.
Beatty was nominated for his first Golden Globe Award for his supporting performance in Peter Chelsom’s drama about Liverpool nightclub owner Micky O’Neill’s attempt to save his business by booking famed Irish tenor Josef Locke (Beatty). Failing that, a Locke imposter is considered, but there’s nothing like the real thing. So O’Neill (Adrian Dunbar) sets out for Ireland, where Locke has fled after he avoided paying taxes in England. O’Neill begs the Irish tenor to return with him to Liverpool and rejuvenate his performing career. Though Beatty’s onscreen time is relatively small, his character is talked about throughout the film, so when he does finally appear, audiences are happy and satisfied.
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9. BACK TO SCHOOL (1986)
Image Credit: Orion/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Alan Metter. Writers: Steven Kampmann, Will Porter, Peter Torokvei, Harold Ramis. Starring Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, Keith Gordon, Ned Beatty, Robert Downey Jr.
Whether in dramas or comedies, Beatty plays authority figures convincingly, and he does once again in this Rodney Dangerfield comedy hit. Here Dangerfield plays Thornton Melon, who has become the king of plus-size clothing stores. His son Jason (Keith Gordon) has become despondent in college and is considering dropping out, so Thornton decides to enroll in the college as well to buck up his son. But how does a plus-size clothing tycoon get past Dean David Martin (Beatty) to be admitted? By donating a new campus building, that’s how. Beatty is a real hoot in this.
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8. SUPERMAN (1978)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Dc Comics/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Richard Donner. Writers: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton. Starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Valerie Perrine, Jackie Cooper.
In one of Beatty’s biggest hits, he plays Otis, the bumbling henchman to mad supervillain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) in Richard Donner’s popular reboot of the classic DC Comics superhero. Otis spends much of his time conniving in Luthor’s lavish underground lair, which he shares with Lex’s assistant and girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine), who will later go on to betray both Lex and Otis. There’s no shred of menace present in Beatty’s performance — his Otis is strictly a comic creation designed to get laughs instead of chills, and Beatty provides that on all counts.
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7. HE GOT GAME (1998)
Image Credit: David Lee/Touchstone/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Spike Lee. Starring Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich, John Turturro, Rosario Dawson, Ned Beatty.
Beatty took a small but key role in director Spike Lee’s basketball saga as the real life Marcel Wyatt, the warden at Attica State Penitentiary, where inmate Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) is serving time. At the request of the governor, Warden Wyatt offers Shuttlesworth a deal — if he can persuade his basketball-superstar son Jesus (Ray Allen) to sign on with the governor’s alma mater, the governor will mandate Shuttlesworth’s early release from prison. The question is: will Jesus go along with the plan? The role of the warden is not a flashy one designed to get attention, but Beatty delivers a solid yeoman’s job with it.
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6. CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR (2007)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Mike Nichols. Writer: Aaron Sorkin. Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty.
Beatty displayed his great character-actor chops in “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which would turn out to be director Mike Nichols’ final film before his death. As the three mega-stars — Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman — act up a storm around him, Beatty gets to show his stuff as real-life Democratic Congressman Clarence “Doc” Long, who represented his Maryland district for 22 years in Congress. Long was a big supporter of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War in the early 1980s, and provided significant aid to Rep. Charlie Wilson (Hanks) to that end, and Beatty plays him in a sly, knowing style.
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5. THE BIG EASY (1987)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Jim McBride. Writer: Daniel Petrie, Jr. Starring Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, Ned Beatty, John Goodman, Tom O’Brien.
In Jim McBride’s crime drama about a murder mystery in New Orleans, Beatty plays Captain Jack Kellom, who is the boss of Dennis Quaid’s Detective Lieutenant Remy McSwain, who is investigating the murder of a local gangster. As he begins to gather evidence about the murder, McSwain begins to suspect that some members of the New Orleans police force may be involved in the killing, a prospect that extremely worries Capt. Kellom. Beatty is able to keep an air of mystery around his police chief, causing us to wonder whether this man knows more about that murder than he lets on.
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4. TOY STORY 3 (2010)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Lee Unkrich. Writer: Michael Arndt. Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, Estelle Harris.
Thanks to his likable looks, Beatty has played very few bad guys, but he managed to do it via animation in this “Toy Story” classic as Lots O’ Huggin’ Bear, the virtual dictator among the toys at Sunnyside, a daycare facility to which Andy has donated Woody, Buzz and the entire “Toy Story” crew. Like many good villains, Beatty’s voice work suggests a benign and welcoming character at first, only to become an oppressive tyrant when there’s even a hint of a rebellion in the ranks. Finally Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) has had enough and leads an escape of Andy’s toys from Sunnyside, and given Beatty’s autocratic Lotso, there’s little wonder why Woody and company would want out now. It’s a delightful vocal performance from Beatty, and his sense of menace comes through even in the most cheery line reading.
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3. NASHVILLE (1975)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Robert Altman. Writer: Joan Tewkesbury. Starring Ned Beatty, Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Henry Gibson, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin.
Beatty, after his spectacular debut in “Deliverance,” segued into Robert Altman’s masterpiece which looked at a Presidential campaign through the lens of the country music capital. He plays Del Reese, a local political operative for independent Presidential candidate Hal Philip Walker, who is about to arrive in Nashville. However, his marriage may be in some jeopardy as Del has a roving eye for the ladies. In addition, his gospel-singing wife Linnea (Oscar nominee Lily Tomlin) has learned American Sign Language to better communicate with the couple’s two deaf children, a skill that Del has not learned, and he looks on helplessly as Linnea conducts a conversation with their kids in a heartbreaking sequence. “Nashville” was nominated for 11 Golden Globe Awards, a nomination record that still stands today, and competed for five Oscars (including Best Picture), winning for its song “I’m Easy.”
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2. NETWORK (1976)
Image Credit: United Artists/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sidney Lumet. Writer: Paddy Chayefsky. Starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight.
Beatty was nominated for his first Academy Award for his performance as Arthur Jensen, the chairman of the Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the parent company of the UBS TV network, where news anchor Howard Beale (Oscar winner Peter Finch) has been railing on the air against a proposed deal between CCA and a Saudi Arabian conglomerate, one that CCA sees as necessary to its survival. In a five-minute monologue, Beatty’s Jensen puts the fear of God into Beale by warning him that he has meddled with the primal forces of nature by opposing the CCA merger and for that position, Howard Beale will atone. It’s a remarkable monologue, one of the best of the 1970s, which Beatty delivers with an evangelical fervor that becomes one of the highlights of Sidney Lumet’s classic film.
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1. DELIVERANCE (1972)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: John Boorman. Writer: James Dickey, based on his novel. Starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox.
Few actors in the 1970s had as spectacular a screen debut as Beatty in John Boorman’s film adaptation of the James Dickey novel that focuses on four Georgia guys who decide to holiday by canoeing down the Cahulawassee River. Two of them, however, Ed (Jon Voight) and Bobby (Beatty), are captured and held prisoner by local hillbillies. Ed is tied to a tree, while Bobby is sodomized by them and ordered to squeal like a pig. While they are finally rescued by their compatriots, the episode has a profound effect on the surviving men. While the rape scene is tough to watch, Beatty soldiers through it believably, and to achieve that in your film debut performance is something to celebrate.
Ned Beatty is quite plump and he is still going strong.
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