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Donald Moffat

A bushy-browed veteran character player of stage and screen since the 1960s, Donald Moffat began stomping the boards during the 50s in his native England, making his West End debut in a 1954 production of "Macbeth." He made his feature debut in Paul Newman's "Rachel, Rachel" (1968), and since the early 80s has become a Hollywood staple, playing older gentlemen in both films and TV. Some of Moffat's craggy parts include "The Right Stuff" (1983), as Lyndon B. Johnson; "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988), as the chief surgeon; and "Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990), as Tom Hanks' dad. He was especially touching as a middle-aged businessman who finds he only has a short time to live in the TV miniseries adaptation of Armistead Maupin's San Francisco chronicle, "Tales from the City" (PBS, 1994). Moffat continued working steadily through the '90s, including roles as the president of the United States in the thriller "Clear and Present Danger" (1994) and in Robert Altman's crime comedy "Cookie's Fortune" (1999). He also appeared on "The West Wing" (NBC 1999-2006) as the father of Alison Janney's C.J. Cregg and on Dick Wolf's short-lived "Law & Order: Trial By Jury" (NBC 2005-06) as a judge. Donald Moffat died at his home in Sleepy Hollow, New York on December 20, 2018, following a massive stroke. He was 87.