'Deliciously Droll' actor Charles Grodin passes away at 86

Charles Grodin. Pic/AFP

'The Heartbreak Kid', '12 PM Run' 'Deliciously Droll' and the 'Beethoven' actor Charles Grodin, who charmed audiences with his droll, understated and awkward humour has died. He was 86. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Grodin passed away on Tuesday of bone marrow cancer at his home in Wilton, Connecticut, his child, Nicholas, revealed to The New York Times.

Grodin invigorated Neil Simon's 'Seems Like Old Times' (1980) when he depicted a driven D.A. whose spouse (Goldie Hawn) and life are diverted and upset when her ex (Chevy Chase) plops into their serious marriage. On the other side, the Pittsburgh native carried a tricky cleverness to a positive character in 'Sunburn' (1979), playing an insurance investigator who poses as a tourist while investigating a murder.

In Albert Brooks' mockumentary of a commonplace American family, Real Life' (1979), Grodin's deadpan depiction of the veterinarian spouse and father of two, layered in a vegan wackiness to the satire. Grodin's characters sometimes showed an evil side. In 'King Kong' (1976), he played the obscure businessman who attempts to take advantage of the goliath gorilla; after two years, he depicted a slick legal advisor in the screwball parody change Heaven Can Wait, featuring Warren Beatty.

Early in his career, Grodin was in the running to star as Benjamin Braddock in 'The Graduate' (1967), at that point played an obstetrician in 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968). Grodin vaulted into the public eye in 'Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid' (1972) when he featured as outdoor supplies sales representative Lenny Cantrow, a caddish love bird who falls for another lady (Cybill Shepherd) while on his Miami vacation.

"I thought the character in The Heartbreak Kid was a despicable guy, but I play it with full sincerity. My job isn't to judge it. If it wasn't for Elaine May, I probably would never have had that movie career,"he said in a 2009 interview with The A.V. Club.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Grodin might have crested among mainstream movie audiences in 1988 when he featured opposite Robert De Niro in the action road comedy 'Midnight Run'. As an accountant sentenced for misappropriation and being shipped cross-country to face justice, he eventually displays his overall decency along the way.

Self-described as "low key but high strung," Grodin often played uptight and cranky characters who ultimately were likeable.

He coincided with those tangled characteristics in the popular family comedy 'Beethoven' (1992) and its 1993 spin-off as a pet-averse patriarch. In the movie, he played straight man to the family dog, a lumbering and lovable Saint Bernard, Grodin was appealingly twitchy.

In 'The Great Muppet Caper' (1981), he featured Nicky Holiday, a human suitor who equalled Kermit the Frog for the affections of Miss Piggy.

Cerebral, obstinate and consistently inquisitive, Grodin from 1995-98 hosted an issue-oriented CNBC talk show and served as an Andy Rooney-style commentator for 60 Minutes II, delivering satirical perspectives on politics and social issues.

He also was an accomplished talk show guest, adjusting the persona of a peevish, picked-on person in front of Johnny Carson and David Letterman, and he starred and directed on Broadway.

For Broadway, Grodin directed 'Lovers and Other Strangers', written by married couple Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, in 1968 and then guided Marlo Thomas in the 1974-75 Herb Garner comedy Thieves. Three years later, he starred alongside Thomas in the 1978 movie adaptation.

The Hollywood Reporter unveiled that Grodin won an Emmy in 1978 for co-composing NBC's 'The Paul Simon Special', which advocated the anti-establishment ethos of the era, and wrote and starred in the 1985 Hollywood-set feature Movers and Shakers.

His body of work additionally incorporates such motion pictures as 'Taking Care of Business' (1990), 'Clifford' (1994), 'The Humbling' (2014) and Noah Baumbach's 'While We're Young' (2014), more as of late, he showed up in ABC's Madoff miniseries and on Louie.

Grodin wrote a segment for the New York Daily News for almost 10 years and wrote a few books, including 1989's 'It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here,' 1992's 'The means by which I Get Through Life', 1993's Freddie the Fly and 2009's 'The way I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am'.

Survivors also include a girl, Marion.

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