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Seymour Cassel has died.  A popular character actor for over 50 years, he's best known to film fans for the work he did in independent films, especially with John Cassavetes.  In fact, his first film appearance was in Cassavetes' groundbreaking Shadows (1958).  He went on to appear in several other Cassavetes films, garnering an Oscar nomination for Faces (1968).

He also worked regularly with Wes Anderson, appearing in Rushmore (1998) (as Jason Schwartzman's barber father), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004).

Not that he didn't do more conventional fare.  He worked regularly in television in the 1960s, and appeared in films such as Convoy (1978), Johnny Be Good (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), Honeymoon In Vegas (1992) and Indecent Proposal (1993).

Perhaps my favorite performance was in In The Soup (1992), a low-budget comedy about low-budget filmmaking.  Steve Buscemi is a screenwriter and Cassel a shady producer who promises to get financing by hook or crook.

I saw the film in Santa Monica not long after I moved to Los Angeles.  After leaving the theatre, who should I run into but Cassel.  I asked "Are you Seymour Cassel?" to be sure.  He said yes, then asked who I was.  We talked a little and I mentioned I was writing screenplays.  He told me to let him know if anything I wrote was getting produced.  An actor to the end.