{"id":934425,"date":"2026-10-20T02:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934425\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:14:11","slug":"richard-riehle-dies-aged-78-known-for-roles-in-office-space-bridesmaids-grounded-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934425\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Riehle dies aged 78, known for roles in Office Space, Bridesmaids, Grounded For Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">American actor Richard Riehle has died at the age of 78.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The character actor has more than 400 film and television credits under his belt across his almost 50 year career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Well recognised for his iconic moustache, Riehle is best known for his role in 1999 film Office Space, in which he played anxious product manager Tom Smykowski.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Other film roles included a mechanic in Bridesmaids, a guard in The Fugitive, a banker in Casino, and Rob Schneider\u2019s dad in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">On the small screen, he played a grandfather on Grounded For Life, the principal in sitcom Ferris Bueller, and a police officer on The West Wing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Most recently he appeared in HBO comedy Barry as a prison warden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">His talent agency and management company told <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/pop-culture-news\/richard-riehle-office-space-dies-78-rcna604412\">NBC News<\/a> Riehle would be remembered for his kindness and supporting others in the industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cBeyond his immense talent, he will be remembered for his genuine goodness, boundless kindness, and unwavering generosity, particularly toward emerging actors and filmmakers, whom he encouraged and supported at every opportunity,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Grounded for Life Co-star Donal Logue remembered his on-screen dad as \u201can amazing human\u201d in an online tribute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe played my dad for five years on \u2018Grounded for Life\u2019 and I loved every minute I got to spend with him,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe all loved Richard. I had to apologize to him after his final network audition for Grounded because he made me laugh so hard, I broke character and fell to the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Logue remembered Riehle as someone who carried a novel in his back pocket, and made mention of his recent health challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He died of natural causes in Lose Angeles on Thursday, <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/10\/19\/richard-riehle-dead\/\">TMZ<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American actor Richard Riehle has died at the age of 78. The character actor has more than 400&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,2331,134,1689],"class_list":["post-934425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-culture","tag-entertainment","tag-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}