Deadwood’s Powers Boothe Has Died at 68

By Matthew Dessem

Powers Boothe at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Powers Boothe, the character actor known for his delightfully villainous performances in shows ranging from Deadwood all the way to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., has died at the age of 68, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He died in his sleep of natural causes on Sunday morning, his representatives told the paper. The news was first broken by his friend, actor Beau Bridges:

Boothe grew up in Snyder, Texas, where his father was a sharecropper; theater, he explained in 2012, was a way to escape the farms and oilfields. After heading to Broadway, he made his name in 1980 with a brilliant performance as Jim Jones in CBS miniseries Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. But he got more attention for the aftermath than the performance itself: nominated for an Emmy during a Screen Actors Guild strike, he was the only actor to ignore a union boycott and attend the awards ceremony. Boothe didn’t think he’d win—he was up against Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Tony Curtis—but got a standing ovation and national attention when his name was called and he unexpectedly went on stage to accept his trophy. (The presenters didn’t even know he was there.) “Nothing that anyone said to me was strong enough to sway my basic conviction that the Academy have nothing to do with our strike,” Boothe told the Los Angeles Times, explaining his decision to attend.

From there, Boothe starred as Philip Marlowe on HBO’s Philip Marlowe, Private Eye, taking on a role previously played by hardboiled legends Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, and Robert Mitchum. He worked constantly in film as well as television, with memorable appearances in Red Dawn, Tombstone, Nixon, and Frailty, but he was best known for his TV roles, especially his performance as saloon and brothel owner Cy Tolliver in HBO’s Deadwood. More recently, Boothe brought his trademark villainy to Nashville and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Asked about his penchant for playing bad guys, he told a reporter, “The heavies are more fun. And I think they’re more interesting.”