Last night, Hollywood legend Rip Torn passed away at the age of 88, leaving a legacy of performance and personality that will live forever. Today, in the wake of this loss, members of the Hollywood community have taken to social media to honor Torn’s life and times.
Among those people have been some of his most notable contributors, such as comedian Albert Brooks. With his 1991 film Defending Your Life, Brooks served as writer, director, and co-star to Rip Torn, who played the role of afterlife defense attorney Bob Diamond to comedic perfection.
Albert Brooks’ remembrance of Rip Torn was as follows:
While many people may not see Freddy Got Fingered as a film that deserves even being mentioned in the same breath as Defending Your Life, it’s still very much a notable entry in Rip Torn’s filmography. Especially when his co-star Tom Green, who was also the film’s co-writer and director, took the time to remember their collaboration with the following condolence:
Even actor/raconteur Mara Wilson, who starred with Torn in the Disney made-for-TV movie Balloon Farm, has a story from when she got to meet the man herself:
Not only co-workers of Rip Torn’s illustrious career are paying tribute to him, as there are performers who fondly remember roles from throughout his storied, decades long career of work. One such fan is The Lion King’s Seth Rogen, who not only is a fan of Defending Your Life, but also remembers Rip Torn’s work on The Larry Sanders Show quite fondly, as you’ll see in this tweet:
Meanwhile, actor Dana Delaney dove into the deep cuts of Rip Torn’s catalogue in a simple, but heartbreaking tweet honoring his career:
But perhaps one of the most bittersweet tributes to see after Rip Torn’s death has to be the very simple one that his Men In Black co-star Will Smith left on his Instagram:
There’s a lot of things to remember Rip Torn for after his passing, and it’s truly wonderful to see that the community he worked within and supported as an actor knows that very fact for themselves.
In order to brighten things up a little, and since it’s been mentioned so many times in the stories above, we’d like to close things out with a clip from one of Rip Torn’s definitive performances; that of Bob Diamond from Defending Your Life.
Our condolences go out to Rip Torn’s family and friends who are in mourning at this very moment; and we’re thankful for the legacy of work that he’s left behind.
