The news was first shared by his neighbor and Los Angeles Times writer Sam Farmer on Twitter. “My neighbor, my friend and one of the wisest, most talented and kind people I have ever met, Philip Baker Hall, died peacefully last night,” he wrote. “He was surrounded by loved ones. “The world has an empty space within it.” Holly Wolfle Hall’s wife later confirmed the news to the Associated Press. He said he was fine until relatively recently and spent his last days contemplating his life with warm spirits. “His voice in the end was still just as loud,” he said. Named a Famous Character Actor, Hall began on stage in New York before embarking on a Hollywood career in the 1970s with small roles in Coma and on television shows such as M * A * S * H ​​and the Good Times. “When I first came here, I was completely naive. “I did not know where to start,” Hall told the Washington Post. “Television really did not make sense to me. We never had a TV. I did not see myself making a movie. Always. It did not seem possible or possible. “ But Hall continued to find work throughout the 1980s with roles in Ghostbusters II, Midnight Run and Say Anything and in the 1990s with Air Force One, The Rock and The Truman Show. He befriended Paul Thomas Anderson when the young director worked as a production assistant on a PBS film. Anderson then cast him in Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, which led to even more work for Hall over the next few decades. Philip Baker Hall in Magnolia. Photo: Cinetext Collection / Sportsphoto / Allstar Larry David used it in both Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. “Philip made me laugh more than any actor I’ve ever worked with,” David once said. In 2012, Hall said that Seinfeld’s character, Library Officer Joe Bookman, was arguably his best known to most people. “Bookman is what everyone remembers,” he said. “People will say forever, in the supermarket or anywhere else, no matter where, ‘Oh, you’re a Bookman, right?’ I really liked this Bookman. “Now, I know you’ve done a lot of other things, but I liked that Bookman character.” When they say, “I know you’ve done a lot of other things,” it ‘s like, “You do not know the halves!” But the Bookman? Bookman presses a reply button. And I’m not ungrateful for that. “ Hall’s big screen titles also included Dogville, The Insider, Zodiac, Argo, Bruce Almighty and The Amityville Horror while on the small screen he was also seen in The Newsroom and Modern Family and his voice was heard in Bojack Horseman.