David Huddleston was an actor best known for his work in the title role of the film The Big Lebowski. The cult classic movie by the Coen Brothers came out in 1998 and starred Jeff Bridges and John Goodman. Huddleston also worked extensively in television, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his guest-starring role as “Granpa Arnold” in the series The Wonder Years.
Additionally, Huddleston appeared on the shows Bewitched, McMillan & Wife, Cannon, Medical Center, The Sixth Sense, Bonanza, The Waltons, The New Perry Mason, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Ironside, Mary Tyler Moore, Gunsmoke, The Rookies, Emergency!, Police Woman, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Sanford and Son, Charlie’s Angels, Barnaby Jones, Vega$, Benson, Trapper John, M.D., Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote, Columbo, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Walker, Texas Ranger, Living Single, The Practice, Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Huddleston also served as an executive producer on the series Hizzoner, in which he starred as the mayor of a Midwestern town, and he directed an episode of the series Our House.
Huddleston also had roles in the films Something Big, starring Dean Martin; McQ, starring John Wayne; Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, with Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder; Billy Two Hats, starring Gregory Peck; Capricorn One, with Elliott Gould and James Brolin; Frantic, starring Harrison Ford; Something to Talk About, with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid; and The Producers, starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
In Blazing Saddles, Huddleston played Mayor Olsen Johnson, a blowhard, much like the one he played in The Big Lebowski. His breakthrough role came in the film Bad Company, in which he played a Civil War-era gang leader. The Robert Benton film starred Bridges as a soldier dodging the draft.
Before becoming a performer, Huddleston spent four years in the U.S. Air Force. After which, he used the G.I. Bill to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He went on to perform on stage, including playing Benjamin Franklin in a revival of 1776, and playing Charlie in Death of a Salesman.
Huddleston died August 2, 2016, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 85.
