Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. (February 6, 1931 – July 9, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned roughly 60 years.

Torn's portrayal of Artie the producer on The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998) received six Emmy Award nominations, winning in 1996.

Torn is also known for his roles as Judas Iscariot in King of Kings (1961), Thomas J. Finley, Jr. in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Dr. Nathan Bryce in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bob Diamond in Defending Your Life (1991), Zeus in Hercules (1997), Zed in the Men in Black franchise (1997, 2002), Jim Brody in Freddy Got Fingered (2001), Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), and Louis XV in Marie Antoinette (2006).

[1] The senior Elmore was an agriculturalist and economist who worked to promote the consumption of black-eyed peas, particularly as a custom on New Year's Day.

[11] After portraying Judas, betrayer of Jesus, in 1961 epic film King of Kings, Torn appeared in the February 7, 1962, episode of the acclaimed TV series The Naked City, "A Case Study of Two Savages",[12] adapted from the real-life case of backwood killers Charles Starkweather (played by Torn) and Ora Mae Youngham, (played by Tuesday Weld), Starkweather's young bride, who were on a homicidal spree starting in Appalacia and ending in New York City.

[12] He played a graduate student with multiple degrees in 1963 television series Channing, and as Roy Kendall in the Breaking Point episode "Millions of Faces".

In 1965, in the film The Cincinnati Kid, he played Slade, a corrupt New Orleans millionaire, who pressures Steve McQueen during a high-stakes poker game.

He portrayed a Southern senator in 1979's The Seduction of Joe Tynan, opposite Alan Alda and Meryl Streep, and a music producer in Paul Simon's 1980 film One-Trick Pony.

Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1983's Cross Creek as a poor neighbor of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in the orange groves of Florida.

He was nominated for the CableACE Award for his portrayal of Big Daddy in the 1984 Showtime production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

He co-starred with John Candy as a man who helps a tourist win a sailboat race in the 1985 comedy Summer Rental.

Goldberg was backed by the studio, which also allowed her to replace Torn's chosen DP, veteran cinematographer John A. Alonzo, with her husband.

He played a jeweler who murders his own nephew in order to steal a winning lottery ticket in an episode of Columbo that year on TV, "Death Hits the Jackpot".

In 1993, Torn portrayed the OCP CEO in RoboCop 3 and starred opposite Tantoo Cardinal in Where the Rivers Flow North.

Torn made his feature off-Broadway acting debut as Eben Cabot in the play Desire Under the Elms, followed by Peter in The Kitchen at the 81st Street Theatre.

Torn's off-Broadway debut as director was for the Evergreen Theater with the play The Beard; he won the 1968 Obie for Distinguished Direction for that work.

Torn and Page also co-produced that production, and had previously presented the two plays along with Miss Julie at the off-off-Broadway Hudson Guild Theatre the year before.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, but lost to Tim Conway, who guest-starred in the same sitcom.

Torn's character was reportedly killed off as a direct result of his 2010 arrest,[16] though Tina Fey denied this in a DVD commentary.

In 2015, he reprised his role as Zed in a Men in Black safety video for Air New Zealand with rugby player Israel Dagg and singer Stan Walker.

[citation needed] On January 29, 2010, Torn was arrested after breaking into a Litchfield Bancorp branch office in Lakeville, Connecticut.

[22] In court, his lawyer told the judge his client needed help with alcohol abuse and that he could start treatment immediately in New York.

The judge in the case cited Torn's history of alcohol abuse and the possession of a loaded weapon while intoxicated, which carries a minimum one-year sentence.

[25][26] Appearing as an interview subject in Studs Terkel's 1974 oral-history book Working, Torn confessed, "I have certain flaws in my make-up.