Geoffrey Lewis, the actor best known for his roles in Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood films, is dead at the age of 79. Variety is reporting now that the actor and father of Juliette Lewis died in his Woodland Hills home of natural causes.
Now fans of Geoffrey Lewis, an unapologetic Scientologist, are taking to social media to express their condolences.
Born in 1935 in San Diego, California, Geoffrey Lewis spent time in Rhode Island before relocating back to California, where he would spend the majority of his life. As a young man, Lewis studied in a California college before studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, then moving on to Broadway. For several years, Geoffrey Lewis gave up on his dreams of becoming a great actor, but decided to return to acting in the 1970’s, where he played roles in some of the best remembered tv series, such as Hawaii Five-O, Alice, Laverne & Shirley, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Waltons, S.W.A.T , and The Streets of San Francisco .
Geoffrey Lewis also starred in movies such as Attack On Terror: The FBI vs. The Ku Klux Klan , Thunderbolt and Lightfoot , and The Great Waldo Pepper.
When it came to acting, movies were always his favorite, and his natural cowboy, rustic looks made him a prime candidate to work alongside Clint Eastwood in several movies, such as Any Which Way You Can, Bronco Billy , and Pink Cadillac .
Always very picky about the types of movie roles he chose, he once stated in 1978 that he hated acting in “dumb movies about dumb people, doing dumb things,” according to Rome News Tribune .
He did appear in some TV series, but they were never his favorite type of jobs to accept. One thing was for sure, he always knew that he was never cut out to be a regular guy with a regular job because acting has been in his blood since he was a just a child, where he would often act out different roles, from cops to robbers, to cowboys or firemen.
He also stung his daughter Juliette Lewis with the acting bug. Like her father, she always knew that she wanted to be an actress, and often times her grades in school suffered because of her strong desire to act, instead of studying what she considered boring topics. Yes, Geoffrey Lewis sure did have a hard time with his daughter but ultimately realized that he couldn’t do anything about her lack of love for school. At just 14 years old, Juliette Lewis began making her own decisions about her career, landing her break out role in Cape Fear at the mere age of 17.
Today, Juliette Lewis can only reflect upon the good times that she shared with her father. According to The Daily Mail , Juliette Lewis nursed her father back to health after almost losing him rather recently.
Geoffrey Lewis leaves behind his wife, Paula Hochhalter, his daughter Juliette Lewis, and several other children.
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