Lauter Off Dead

Ed Lauter, who gave Detectives Lewis and Crosetti a tour of sites associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, has died of mesothelioma at the age of 74. The angular face and menacing demeanor made him the classic “Hey, it’s that guy,” heavy division. His more than 200 screen credits included the brutal prison guard in the better version of The Longest Yard, a cop who helped Charles Bronson clean the streets of New York as a homicidal vigilante, a rival scout in Trouble with the Curve, part of the crew in the crappy remake of King Kong, and Rick Moranis’ boss in My Blue Heaven.