Richard Riehle, Office Space Actor, Dead At 78
Richard Riehle, the character actor best known for the 1999 film "Office Space," has died. He was 78.
According to the actor's friends, he died of natural causes Thursday, October 15 in Los Angeles. TMZ was first to report the news.
In "Office Space," which was directed by Mike Judge, Riehle played Tom Smykowski, a product manager who gets let go from the company Initech. After the character survived a hit-and-run, he landed a massive financial settlement which allowed him to create the prototype for the "Jump to Conclusions" mat.
But Riehle got his start in the business over 20 years prior, appearing in hundreds of roles across film and TV. His earliest TV credits include "My Two Dads," "Dragnet," and "Falcon Crest" in the '80s. He later went on to have sizable roles in series like "Ferris Bueller," "Grounded for Life," and "The Young and the Restless," but guest-starred in tons of favorites throughout his career like "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Ally McBeal," "ER," "Star Trek: Enterprise," "NCIS," "The Middle," "The West Wing," and more. One of his most recent roles was on HBO's "Barry" in 2023 where he played Warden Reynolds for two episodes.
Riehle's "Grounded for Life" co-star Donal Logue took to Instagram Monday to pay tribute to his former on-screen father.
"Richard Riehle was an amazing human being," he wrote. "A consummate professional, he was an actor's actor — humble, kind, and incredible at his craft. He played my dad for five years on 'Grounded for Life' and I loved every minute I got to spend with him. We 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. I'll always remember small details — how he always had a novel (never pulp stuff, always Hugo or Dostoevsky or another classic) stuffed into the back pocket of his old-school slacks. He loved the House of Pies on the corner of Franklin and Vermont (I did, too). A huge thanks to Tyrone Finch for being there for Richard through all his health challenges in the last few years of his life. [We] will miss you forever, Richard."
Riehle was just as busy on the film side of things. His big-screen credits include "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Of Mice and Men," "Free Willy," "Jury Duty," "Mighty Joe Young," "Casino," "Bridesmaids," "Pee-wee's Big Holiday," and more.