Walter Lane Smith III

Walter Lane Smith III, known as Lane Smith (April 29, 1936 – June 13, 2005)

His well-known roles included portraying collaborator entrepreneur Nathan Bates in the series V, Mayor Bates in the film Red Dawn, newspaper editor Perry White in the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Coach Jack Reilly in The Mighty Ducks, district attorney Jim Trotter III in My Cousin Vinny and American President Richard Nixon in The Final Days, for which he received a Golden Globe award nomination. During the 1970s, he regularly made appearances in small film roles including Rooster Cogburn in 1975 and Network in 1976. In 1981 he appeared in the Sidney Lumet-directed film Prince of the City. He also acted on television, notably playing a United States Marine in Vietnam in the television miniseries A Rumor of War and in the 1980 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Gideon's Trumpet starring Henry Fonda, José Ferrer and John Houseman. He is also credited for playing McMurphy 650 times in the 1971 Broadway revival of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Smith was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease) in April 2005. He died of the disease at his home in Northridge, California on June 13, 2005 at the age of 69.