The actor Christopher Evan Welch has died in Los Angeles. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010, but had continued to work, most recently shooting a regular role on Mike Judge's upcoming HBO comedy series Silicon Valley.
Welch's first love was theatre, and his accomplished stage career saw him appearing on Broadway in Festen (adapted from Thomas Vinterberg's film), and in revivals of Arthur Miller's The Crucible (with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney), Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and Dion Boucicault's London Assurance.
On television he had one-off roles in the early 2000s in shows like The Practice, Law & Order and Whoopi, working his way up to later appearances in The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife, and a regular part on Rubicon. Last year he played Samuel Abbott in the "Child Predator" episode of CBS' Holmes and Watson drama Elementary.
In the cinema, he had small roles in the Stepford Wives remake, The Interpreter and What Just Happened, and turned out for Steven Spielberg (The War Of The Worlds, Lincoln), Robert De Niro (The Good Shepherd), Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York), Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master) and Woody Allen (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Whatever Works).
He is survived by his wife Emma and 3-year-old daughter June Harper. Friends and colleagues paid online tributes. Ed Vassallo of the Labyrinth Theatre Company called Welch "one of NY's phenomenally consistent stage actors". Mike McKean called him "a very nice man and a wonderful actor, echoed by Garrett Dillahunt's "great guy, great actor".
"We've lost a good one," said both Bobby Cannavale and Martha Plimpton.