The late Ron Leibman was as much of a TV and stage actor as a film guy. My first impression was that he was brilliant at playing funny eccentrics.

For me his first three film roles were the keepers. Sidney Hocheiser, the brother of George Segal‘s Gordon Hocheiser, in Carl Reiner‘s Where’s Poppa? (’70). Murch, the exuberant car enthusiast and helicopter pilot in Peter Yates‘ The Hot Rock (’72). And the resentful, pissed off Paul Lazzaro in George Roy Hill‘s Slaughterhouse Five (’72).

These and the role of labor organizer Reuben Warshowsky in Martin Ritt‘s Norma Rae (’70) for a solid fourth.

Leibman won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for playing Roy Cohn in Angels in America. He snagged an Emmy Award for playing the lead in a short-lived crime drama series Kaz. Leibman is allegedly best known for playing Jennifer Aniston‘s “rich, short-tempered” father on Friends.