Miguel Ferrer

An intense character actor who specialized in playing cranky or seamy types, Miguel Ferrer first gained notice in films as the greedy businessman who played an instrumental role in the creation of "Robocop" (1987). He was also remembered as Albert Rosenfield, the foul-tempered FBI forensics expert, on David Lynch's cult soap, "Twin Peaks" (ABC, 1990-91) and in the feature "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me" (1992). The eldest son of actor Jose Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, Ferrer was drawn to the drums as a child after seeing Little Ricky play them on "I Love Lucy" and Ringo Starr perform with The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show." A professional musician by his late teens, Ferrer was chosen as one of three drummers -- including Ringo Starr -- to perform on Keith Moon's 1975 solo album Two Sides of the Moon. Fittingly, he made his acting debut playing a drummer in an episode of "Sunshine" (NBC, 1975), a sitcom co-starring his friend and fellow musician Bill Mumy (best remembered for playing Will Robinson on "Lost in Space"), who snared him the gig. Apart from music, Ferrer became a busy character actor in films and TV beginning in the 1980s. In 1990 alone his output included recurring roles on "Twin Peaks" and "Shannon's Deal" (NBC 1990-91), a starring role in the "Drug Wars: The Camarena Story" (NBC 1990) miniseries, a starring role as a Blue Bayou cop in his own series "Broken Badges" (CBS 1990-91) and supporting roles in two features, "Revenge" and "The Guardian." Ferrer achieved leading man status in the little-seen thriller "The Harvest" (1993) but continued working primarily as a character actor for the rest of his career, appearing in films ranging from the knockabout comedy sequel "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993) to Steven Soderbergh's drug-trafficking drama "Traffic" (2000). While continuing to appear in films such as Jonathan Demme's remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004) and Shane Black's "Iron Man 3" (2013), Ferrer also lent his distinctive voice to animated films ranging from Disney hit "Mulan" (1998) to singing-birds sequel "Rio 2" (2014). Miguel Ferrer died of esophageal cancer on January 19, 2017 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 61.