{"id":939346,"date":"2026-10-19T23:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939346\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T23:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:02:10","slug":"office-space-star-richard-riehle-dead-at-78-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939346\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Office Space&#8217; star Richard Riehle dead at 78"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Riehle, best known to many audiences for his role in \u201cOffice Space,\u201d has died at age 78.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - NOVEMBER 30: Richard Riehle attends Hallmark's Premiere Screening of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story on November 30, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Photo by Jason Davis\/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4942b122-c3be-4fb6-bc9e-cd1df5d95279-GettyImages2187632495.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI &#8211; NOVEMBER 30: Richard Riehle attends Hallmark&#8217;s Premiere Screening of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story on November 30, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Photo by Jason Davis\/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)<\/p>\n<p>Friends of Riehle confirmed the news to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/10\/19\/richard-riehle-dead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TMZ<\/a>, saying he died of natural causes last Thursday in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Riehle had over 400 credits to his name, with the most recent completed one in the film \u201cThe Cowboy Killer.\u201d According to IMDb, he had another 10 in the works, some of which were completed as well but yet to be released.<\/p>\n<p>He had dozens of memorable roles in films like \u201cCasino,\u201d \u201cGlory,\u201d and \u201cThe Fugitive,\u201d as well as TV shows like \u201cGrounded for Life,\u201d \u201cThe Middle,\u201d and several \u201cStar Trek\u201d series.<\/p>\n<p>Among his many roles, his performance as product manager Tom Smykowski in \u201cOffice Space\u201d is one his most loved, in part because of the character\u2019s invention of a \u201cJump to Conclusions\u201d mat.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"SANTA MONICA, CA - OCTOBER 29:  Actor Richard Riehle attends the 3rd Annual Carney Awards at The Broad Stage on October 29, 2017 in Santa Monica, California.  (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/23348ae7-4d47-4385-9388-63f79cf4a859-GettyImages868003832.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>SANTA MONICA, CA &#8211; OCTOBER 29:  Actor Richard Riehle attends the 3rd Annual Carney Awards at The Broad Stage on October 29, 2017 in Santa Monica, California.  (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>The beloved prop has apparently \u201cdisappeared,\u201d according to Reihle\u2019s 2017 interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avclub.com\/richard-riehle-on-his-long-career-and-short-mustache-i-1798260453\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The A.V. Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one knows where it is And that\u2019s including [writer\/director] Mike Judge!\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Remembering his time working on the film, Riehle spoke fondly, saying, \u201cit was just an amazing group of people. Everybody hung around. The basketball playoffs were going on, so at the end of the day, we\u2019d often be down in the lobby, watching the game and having drinks. He [Judge] took us to the Salt Lick and all the great places to eat in Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - NOVEMBER 30: Richard Riehle attends Hallmark's Premiere Screening of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story on November 30, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Photo by Jason Davis\/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4942b122-c3be-4fb6-bc9e-cd1df5d95279-GettyImages2187632495.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI &#8211; NOVEMBER 30: Richard Riehle attends Hallmark&#8217;s Premiere Screening of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story on November 30, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.  (Photo by Jason Davis\/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)<\/p>\n<p>Riehle was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and attended the University of Notre Dame and later received an MFA at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wearepauserewind\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">@WeArePauseRewind<\/a> for all your pop culture obsessions.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Riehle, best known to many audiences for his role in \u201cOffice Space,\u201d has died at age 78.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-939346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}