Early life

Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Katharine (née Sullivan) and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent. He is of Irish descent. He was raised in a rural area of Vermont, and attended college at Clarkson University.

Career

Walsh came to prominence in the 1978 crime film Straight Time, in which he played a parole officer. He also had a memorable role as a crazed sniper in the Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. One of his best-known roles was Bryant in Ridley Scott's cult film Blade Runner. His most acclaimed performance was arguably the double-crossing private detective in Blood Simple (1984), for which he won the 1986 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

Walsh made occasional guest appearances on Home Improvement as Tim Allen's father-in-law. In 1992, he appeared as a powerful U.S. Senator in David Winning's Killer Image. In Christmas with the Kranks, he played one of Tim Allen's neighbors. He also appeared as Alex Lembeck, a motorcycle cop who appointed himself as Sandy Stockton's chaperone and protector on The Sandy Duncan Show in 1972, and he appeared in an episode of the NBC drama series Gibbsville in 1976.

In comedy, Walsh played the cynical small town sportswriter Dickie Dunn in the iconic 1976 hockey film Slap Shot, and a college diving coach in the Rodney Dangerfield film Back to School. According to Roger Ebert's Stanton-Walsh Rule, "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad". Ebert later conceded that this rule was broken by 1989's Dream a Little Dream (Stanton) and 1999's Wild Wild West (Walsh). Walsh appeared on an episode of "Frasier".

Filmography

• The Doctors (several episodes, 1968) - Jason Randall
• Alice's Restaurant (1969) - Group W Sergeant
• Midnight Cowboy (1969) - Bus Passenger
• The Traveling Executioner (1970) - Warden Brodski
• Little Big Man (1970) - Shotgun Guard
• "Bonanza" (1 episode, Warbonnet, 1971) - Mattheson
• Cold Turkey (1971) - Art
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - Aide to General Winthrop
• What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Arresting Officer
• Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) - Mr. Wendel
• Kid Blue (1973) - Jonesy
• Serpico (1973) - Chief Ghallagher
• The Gambler (1974) - Las Vegas Gambler
• Doctor Dan (1974) - Mr. Wallace
• At Long Last Love (1975) - Harold
• Crime Club (1975) - Lt. Jack Doyle
• Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) (TV film)
• Bound for Glory (1976)
• The Invasion of Johnson County (1976) - Irvine
• Mikey and Nicky (1976) - Bus Driver
• Slap Shot (1977) - Dickie Dunn
• Airport '77 (1977) - Dr. Williams
• Red Alert (1977 CBS-TV movie) - Sheriff Sweeney
• Superdome (1978 ABC-TV movie) - Whitley
• A Question of Guilt (1978) - McCarthy
• Straight Time (1978) - Earl Frank
• Dear Detective (1979) - Capt. Gorcey
• The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979) - Wally Cantrell
• The Jerk (1979) - Madman
• The French Atlantic Affair (1979) - Harry
• Brubaker (1980) - C.P. Woodward
• Raise the Titanic (1980) - Master Chief Walker
• Ordinary People (1980) - Coach Salan
• High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980) - Harold Patton
• Back Roads (1981) - Arthur
• Reds (1981) - Speaker at Liberal Club
• Cannery Row (1982) - Mack
• The Escape Artist (1982) - Fritz
• Blade Runner (1982) - Bryant
• Fast-Walking (1983) - Sergeant Sanger
• Silkwood (1983) - Walt Yarborough
• Courage (1984) - Colonel Crouse
• Grandview, U.S.A. (1984) - Mr. Clark
• The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) - Burns
• Blood Simple (1984) - Loren Visser
• Missing in Action (1984) - Tuck
• Fletch (1985) - Dr. Joseph Dolan
• Wildcats (1986) - Walt Coes
• Critters (1986) - Harv
• The Deliberate Stranger (1986 TV movie) - Det. Sam Davies (based on the real life Capt. Nick Mackie)
• The Best of Times (1986) - Charlie
• Back to School (1986) - Coach Turnbull
• Harry and the Hendersons (1987) - George Henderson Sr
• No Man's Land (1987) - Capt. Haun
• Raising Arizona (1987) - Machine Shop Ear-Bender
• Murder Ordained (1987) - Vern Humphrey
• The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) - Governor
• Clean and Sober (1988) - Richard Dirk
• Sunset (1988) - Chief Dibner
• War Party (1988) - Colin Ditwelier
• Red Scorpion (1988) - Dewey Furguson
• The Mighty Quinn (1989) - Fred Miller
• Catch Me If You Can (1989) - Johnny Phatmun
• Chattahoochee (1989) - Morris
• Thunderground (1989) - Wedge
• Love and Lies (1990) - Clyde Wilson
• The Flash (1990) - Henry Allen
• Narrow Margin (1990) - Sergeant Dominick Benti
• Fourth Story (1991) - Harry
• Silverfox (1991) - Charles Blankenship
• The Naked Truth (1992) - Garcia
• Killer Image (1992) - Senator John Kane
• White Sands (1992) - Bert Gibson
• Equinox (1992) - Pete Petosa
• Bitter Harvest (1993) - Sheriff Bob
• The Music of Chance (1993) - Caretaker Calvin Murks
• Relative Fear (1994) - Earl Ladelle
• Camp Nowhere (1994) - T.R. Polk
• The Glass Shield (1994) - Detective Jessie Hall
• Cops & Robbersons (1994)
• Criminal Hearts (1995) - Martin
• Dead Badge (1995) - Sgt. Miller Hoskins
• Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995) - Bill Wilcox
• Panther (1995) - Dorsett
• The Killing Jar (1996) - Sheriff Foley
• Portraits of a Killer (1996) - Raymond Garrison
• Albino Alligator (1996) - Dino
• A Time to Kill (1996) - Dr. Bass
• William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996) - Apothecary
• Retroactive (1997) - Sam
• My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) - Joe O'Neal
• Chairman of the Board (1998) - Freemont
• Twilight (1998) - Lester Ivar
• Erasable You (1998) - Ralph Worth
• Nightmare in Big Sky Country (1998) - Marshal Phillips
• "The Unnatural" (episode of The X-Files, 1999) - Arthur Dales
• Wild Wild West (1999) - Coleman
• The Iron Giant (1999) - Earl Stutz (voice)
• Monster! (1999) - Lloyd
• NYPD Blue (2000) - Dr. Joe Kroft
• Eyeball Eddie (2000) - Coach Cook
• Poor White Trash (2000) - Judge Pike
• Jack of Hearts (2000) - Menlo Boyce
• "Bully for Martin" (episode of Frasier, 2001) - Rich Koechner
• Christmas in the Clouds (2001) - Stu O'Malley
• Snow Dogs (2002) - George Murphy
• Baggage (2003) - Sandy Westphall
• Greener Mountains (2004) - Muggs
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004) - Walt Scheel
• Racing Stripes (2005) - Woodzie
• Man in the Chair (2007) - Mickey Hopkins
• Big Stan (2007) - Lew Popper
• Sherman's Way (2008) - Hoyt
• Chasing 3000 (2008) - Chuck Ireland
• Your Name Here (2008) - Kroger/Maurice Stanz
• Haunted Echoes (2008) - Neil
• Don McKay (2009) - Samuel
• Sam Steele and the Jr. Detective Agency (2009) - Chief Van Owen
• Pound Puppies (2010-2014) - Olaf (voice)
• Youth in Revolt (2010) - Mr. Saunders
• The Raven (2012) - Geselbracht
• "Battle Scars" (episode of Army Wives, 2012) - Bernard
• The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) - Bub
• "Jake the Dog" and "Frost & Fire" (episodes of Adventure Time, 2012 and 2013) - Cosmic Owl (voice)
• Boiling Pot (2013) - Dean Marison
• Calvary (2014) - The Writer

[ Source: Wikipedia ]