Wilford Brimley Passes Away at 85

Wilford Brimley, the legendary character actor who starred in several great films throughout the 1970s and 1980s, died on Saturday. Brimley was best known for his roles in John Carpenter's The Thing and Ron Howard's Cocoon, as well as the diabetes education commercials he appeared in. He was 85.

Wilford Brimley appeared in the 1979 thriller, “The China Syndrome”

Sources close to Brimley said he died Saturday morning at his Utah home and was recently in an intensive care unit at a hospital on dialysis and was sick for several days. He is survived by his wife Beverly and three children.

Brimley was born Anthony Wilford Brimley in Salt Lake City on Sept. 27, 1934, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before he became an actor. He started acting in the late 1960s, appearing as an extra in Westerns. His breakthrough role came in 1974, when he joined the TV series The Waltons as Horace Brimley, appearing in 10 episodes through 1977.

In 1979, Brimley starred in The China Syndrome, opposite Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Jane Fonda. This helped establish his movie career, and he began appearing in multiple movies almost every year. His incredible list of 1980s credits includes Absence of Malice, The Thing, The Natural, Tender Mercies, Cocoon, Jackals, Cocoon: The Return, and End of the Line. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he continued starring in movies regularly, appearing in The Firm, In & Out, All My Friends Are Cowboys, and Comanche. Brimley also made memorable one-episode appearances on Seinfeld and Homicide: Life on the Street.

For many though, Brimley was known for his appearances in two successful ad campaigns. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was featured in Quaker Oats commercials. He also appeared in Liberty Medical's commercials for diabetes testing supplies, inspired by his own diagnosis with diabetes mellitus in 1979. He became a lifelong advocate for raising awareness of diabetes and received the American Diabetes' Association's lifetime achievement honor in 2008.

KPGZ News - Jim Dickerson contributed to this story