On Thursday, Jan. 19, NCIS and Robocop actor Miguel Ferrer died at the age of 61, according to Deadline. Fans and peers have slowly begun to react to the news, and his cousin, George Clooney, mourned Ferrer with a particularly poignant note. He told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Today history will mark giant changes in our world, and lost to most will be that on the same day Miguel Ferrer lost his battle to throat cancer. But not lost to his family."
Clooney's statement continued, "Miguel made the world brighter and funnier and his passing is felt so deeply in our family that events of the day, (monumental events), pale in comparison. We love you Miguel. We always will." His sentiment echoes that of NCIS showrunner R. Scott Gemill, who called Ferrer a beloved family member of the procedural show's team. "Miguel was a man of tremendous talent who had a powerful dramatic presence on screen, a wicked sense of humor, and a huge heart," he told Deadline in a statement.
Both men's comments speak to how deeply Ferrer touched the lives around him, but he'll also be missed in Hollywood. The acting veteran had a prolific career, appearing in over 100 films, video games, and TV shows across his 30-plus year tenure.
Ferrer started out in the early '80s nabbing small guest spots in series like Magnum, P.I., CHiPS and Cagney & Lacey, and features in Heartbreaker, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Star Trek: III: The Search for Spock. He landed his breakout role in 1987 as Robocop's Bob Morton, an ambitious employee who spearheads the Robocop program only to be murdered by his envious boss.
In 1990, he scored the part of FBI Agent Albert Rosenfeld in Twin Peaks, which he was set to reprise for David Lynch's forthcoming revival of the series. Ferrer is credited on the IMDb page of the revival, which is currently listed as in "post-production." He joined the cast of NCIS: Los Angeles as Owen Granger in 2012, and has also appeared in Crossing Jordan, Desperate Housewives, and Adventure Time.
Whether you were familiar with his work or not, it's clear Ferrer left an impact both onscreen and off, and Clooney's tribute is a testament to how greatly he'll be missed.
