TV and Film Icon Wilford Brimley Passes Away

Another legend of film and television has left us in Coccon and Our House star Wilford Brimley. Brimley, who also starred in The Thing and served as the spokesman for Quaker Oats and diabetes testing supplies, passed away in Saturday in a hospital in his hometown of St. George, Utah according to He was 85.

Brimley had an extensive film and television career, but his work as the face of Quaker Oats and Liberty Medical is perhaps what he’s best known as. Brimley appeared in a series of ads for the breakfast cereal in the 1980s and became a pop culture phenomenon for his spokesman work for the diabetes testing supplies service in the late ’90s and early ’00s.

Before that, Brimley began his acting career in 1967 after serving in the Marines for three years in the 1950s and working as, among other things, a bodyguard for Howard Hughes. He began his acting career by uncredited roles in Bandolero! and the Oscar-winning film True Grit. He would get his big break when he landed recurring role of Horace Brimley on The Waltons in 1974, which he parleyed into TV film rols like The Wild Wild West Revisited, Amber Waves, and Acts of Vengeance. He also memorable had an appearance in the Star Wars universe, appearing in the 1985 TV film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor where he played Noa Briqualon.

He broke into film as a known quantity in 1979 with The China Syndrome and would go on to star in John Carpenter’s The Thing in 1982, Barry Levinson’s The Natural alongside Robert Redford, and his most famous film role in 1985’s sci-fi dramedy Cocoon (and its 1988 follow-up Cocoon: The Return). He had over 70 credits to his name between film and TV, among them Hard Target alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in 1993 and the John Grisham-adapted legal thriller The Firm with Tom Cruise. His last completed work was 2017’s fath-based family film I Believe.

Brimley was also an accomplished singer and recorded several albums covering jazz standards, most notably 2004’s This Time the Dream’s on Me.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends, and many fans of Mr. Brimley. He will most certainly be missed.