Richard Riehle, the character actor whose broad, weathered face and dry comic timing made him a familiar presence in "Office Space" and scores of other films and television shows, has died at 78. Confirmation of his death circulated Tuesday, prompting tributes from collaborators and fans who remembered him as one of Hollywood's most dependable supporting players - the kind of performer who could lift a scene with a single line and then disappear back into the ensemble.

To most moviegoers, Riehle is forever the man in the red stapler's orbit: Tom Smykowski in Mike Judge's 1999 workplace comedy "Office Space," a nervous, middle-management casualty who famously explains that his job consists of "dealing with the [expletive] customers" so the engineers don't have to. It was a small part in a film that flopped in theaters and later became a cultural touchstone on home video, and Riehle's performance - all sweat, wounded dignity and escalating panic - helped turn Tom into one of the movie's most quoted characters. The role gave him an unlikely second act as a comic institution, even as he kept working steadily in dramas, thrillers and prestige television.

Born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1948, Riehle came to acting through the theater. He studied at the University of Notre Dame and later at the University of Minnesota, and he spent years on stage before drifting into film and television in the 1980s. That grounding showed. Whether he was playing a small-town sheriff, a gruff foreman, a priest or a hospital administrator, Riehle brought a plainspoken Midwestern solidity to parts that could easily have been forgettable. Directors cast him because he made ordinary men feel specific - a bartender with a backstory, a boss with a mortgage.

His screen credits ran to the hundreds and spanned nearly four decades. He appeared in "Glory" and "The Fugitive," in "Casino" and "Executive Decision," and he was a fixture in the Judd Apatow comedy universe, popping up in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Step Brothers," among others. On television he worked constantly, with memorable turns on "The West Wing," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," " Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Grounded for Life," "Better Call Saul," "The Middle" and "Grace and Frankie," often as authority figures whose mild manner concealed either exasperation or quiet menace. He also lent his voice to animated projects, including a recurring role on "The Legend of Korra" and appearances in the "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" series.

For a certain generation of comedy fans, though, Riehle's defining moment remained a conference-room scene in a bland Texas office park. "Office Space," adapted from Judge's animated shorts about office drudgery, arrived in 1999 to modest reviews and weak ticket sales. It found its audience on cable and DVD, and lines about TPS reports and flair became shorthand for corporate absurdity. Riehle embraced the association, recounting in interviews that strangers approached him for years to recite his dialogue back to him. It was, he suggested, a strange and welcome gift - a character actor's version of fame.

Colleagues remembered him this week as a generous scene partner and a working actor's working actor, the sort of presence who made a set feel calmer. Casting directors prized him for the same reason: he could suggest an entire life in a few lines, whether the script called for warmth or exasperation. He rarely headlined a film, and he seemed at peace with that. His career was a long demonstration that the supporting players are often what audiences actually remember.

Riehle is survived by his family; details on survivors and memorial arrangements were not immediately available. He leaves behind a filmography that reads like a map of American popular culture over the past four decades - and one immortal middle manager, clutching his stapler, still muttering about the customers.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter