Nashville, Laugh In Star Henry Gibson Passes On

One of the gigantic comic character actors of modern times, Henry Gibson, died today at age 73 after battling cancer.

Gibson was an actor with a credit list as long as your arm, whose work included performing as a Laugh In regular, the role of the Neo-Nazi in The Blues Brothers, the voice of WIlbur in the original Charlotte’s Web film, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and most recently a stretch on Boston Legal. He was also a something of an early performance artist, doing a stage routine in which he meekly read off-kilter poetry.

But he is perhaps best known for his role in Robert Altman’s classic Nashville in which he played megalomanical country superstar Haven Hamilton. For that part for which Gibson himself wrote the character’s songs including We Must Be Doing Something Right To Last 200 Years, shown below set to a montage of patriotic images by someone who clearly did not see the film for which the song was written.