Actor Ned Beatty died in his sleep in his Los Angeles home Sunday surrounded by friends and family — his wife Sandra Johnson, eight children and grandchildren. He was 83.

He made his movie debut in the 1972 psycho adventure drama ‘Deliverance’ with Burt Reynolds, John Voight and Ronny Cox, Atlanta businessmen riding the rapids in backwoods Georgia.


Beatty played the victim of a rape by mountain men in the hard-to-watch ‘Squeal like a pig’ scene.

The Kentucky-born actor appeared in more than 150 movies and TV shows, but the standout performance to me was in the 1976 box office hit ‘Network’ when he gave a thundering five-minute long monologue to convince madman news anchor Howard Beale,


played by Peter Finch, to accept a major merger deal that would be bad for the public.

The performance as network head Arthur Jensen earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards that year. The screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky and this scene was a powerhouse, as relevant today — even more so — as it was then. The message being that the world is controlled by corporations and the common man and woman have zero rights.

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it! Is that clear?!




That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!







Beale: “Why me?”


Beale: “I have seen the face of God.”

Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

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