Richard Libertini‘s three defining roles, in this descending order: (a) the traveling vaudevillian who arrived on Sam Shepard‘s estate in a biplane in Terrence Malick‘s Days of Heaven (’78), the Latin American dictator who worshipped black velvet artwork in Arthur Hiller‘s The In-Laws (’79) and the robed spiritual advisor Prahka Lasa in Carl Reiner‘s All of Me (’84). I’m sorry but these are the three I remember. No recollection whatsoever of his work in Popeye (’80), Sharky’s Machine (’81), Soup for One (’82), Best Friends (’82), Deal of the Century (’83), Fletch (’85), Awakenings (’90), The Bonfire of the Vanities (’90)…nothing. Libertini passed yesterday at age 82.
