Richard Riehle, a prolific character actor best known for playing an anxious product manager in the 1999 film “Office Space,” died on Thursday. He was 78.
His representatives provided no other details about his death.
In a career that included more than 400 credits over several decades, Mr. Riehle performed in films, theater, television series, mini-series and even video games.
But Mr. Riehle was most likely best known for playing Tom Smykowski in “Office Space,” the cult classic and satire directed by Mike Judge about corporate employees being victimized by meaningless metrics, efficiency experts and other management fads.
Mr. Riehle’s character, Tom, is extremely anxious, terrified of losing his job at Initech, a tech company — which he eventually does. When corporate efficiency consultants interrogate Tom about what he does all day, he says:
Well — well look. I already told you: I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
Tom later gets into a hit-and-run accident, leaving him in a full-body cast and wheelchair. After he receives a hefty settlement, he no longer needs to work.
Instead, he pursues his dream of creating a “Jump to Conclusions” floor mat, with squares with different conclusions that people can, literally, jump to.
“This is a horrible idea,” one of his colleagues tells him.
Richard Riehle was born on May 12, 1948 in Menomonee Falls, Wis. His father, Herbert John Riehle, was an assistant postmaster, and his mother, Mary Margaret, was a nurse. His father died when he was 13.
As the oldest of six children, Mr. Riehle worked 40 hours a week at a grocery store to help support his family.
He participated in high school plays, but after graduation he entered a seminary to become a priest. After getting caught sneaking back to the seminary from seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” without permission, he decided that the priesthood was not for him.
“They sat me down at that point and just asked me if I really thought this was the right place for me,” he told Notre Dame Magazine in 2011. “We both knew the answer.”
Mr. Riehle attended the University of Notre Dame, where he acted, directed and built sets. He became fluent in German during a study abroad program in Austria.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 1970, he became a teaching assistant at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts and began his professional stage career, spending years working in regional theater. He also took on small screen roles.
“I was content during that time,” Mr. Riehle told his alumni magazine. “I always seemed to find work.”
He made his debut on Broadway in “Execution of Justice” in 1986, and stayed in New York for another decade, later appearing in “The Iceman Cometh” in 1999, alongside Paul Giamatti. He appeared in dozens of TV shows, including “Hot Pursuit,” “L.A. Law,” “Quantum Leap,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “The West Wing.”
He even appeared in the soap opera “One Life to Live,” and played a high school principal in a TV adaptation of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
“I always wanted the role that would bring something out of me, force me to find something extra,” Mr. Riehle told his alumni magazine. “The lead isn’t always the best part in a play or a movie.”
His breakthrough in film occurred in 1989, when he played a bureaucratic quartermaster in the Civil War drama “Glory.” Roles in more than 100 films followed, including the “The Fugitive,” “Casino,” and three “Star Trek” movies.
“Beyond his immense talent, he will be remembered for his genuine goodness, boundless kindness, and unwavering generosity, particularly toward emerging actors and filmmakers, whom he encouraged and supported at every opportunity,” his talent agency, Artists & Representatives, and management company, Wright Entertainment, said in a joint statement.
Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Riehle has parts in approximately another dozen films that are in production, or that have been completed.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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