Nixed

Nixed

Or
End of the Lane

Or
The Final Days
(Props to Monty)

Or
Great Lane Smith’s Ghost
(Further accolades for Monty)
Lane Smith, a character actor who made a career out of portraying charismatic creeps, including Richard Nixon, has died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 69. Smith won an Emmy nomination for playing Nixon in the 1989 TV-movie “The Final Days,” pissing off both Nixon critics and supporters, suggesting he got it right. Other roles including DA Jim Trotter, III in “My Cousin Vinny,” Daily Planet editor Perry White in “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” Gordon Bombay’s coach turned arch-nemesis Jack Reilly in “The Mighty Ducks,” corrupt industrialist and alien collaborator Nathan Bates on “V,” the banker trying to repossess Sally Field’s farm in Places in the Heart, the mayor of Calumet, Colorado in Red Dawn and Pauly Shore’s father in law in “Son-in-Law.” He also played the prosecutor who tried to convict Cliff Barnes for the murder of Kirstin Shephard, who, of course, was the answer to everyone’s favorite cliffhanger, “Who Shot J.R.?” and had returned to Southfork to try to blackmail J.R. by revealing she had given birth to his son, but as was revealed after her death, she had miscarried J.R.’s child and was pregnant by her subsequent boyfriend, Jeff Farraday, who then sells the child to Bobby who announces the successful adoption of a son, Christopher, following Pam’s several miscarriages. Prior to TV and movies, he had achieved notoriety for portraying Randle Patrick McMurphy in 650 off-Broadway performances of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”