Ned Beatty turns 71 today

Today, actor Ned Beatty turns 71 years young. Ned Beatty may not be as familiar to moviegoers as, say, Gene Hackman or Harrison Ford. That's because he's largely been a supporting actor over the years, yet many of these roles are quite memorable.

To many moviegoers, Ned Beatty will forever be remembered as Otis, Lex Luthor's bumbling sidekick in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. To others, he's remembered as Bobby, the equally bumbling poor soul who has an unfortunate mid-river encounter in Deliverance. Me, though, I remember him not as a bumbling fool but as a tower of doom from his brief cameo in Network, when he gives Peter Finch a crash course in capitalism.



Happy 71st, Ned!