John Heard, star of Home Alone, Cutter's Way and The Sopranos, dies at 71 | Film

John Heard, star of Home Alone, Cutter's Way and The Sopranos, dies at 71 | Film

John Heard, the actor who was best known for his role as the father in the Home Alone movies, has died. He was 71.

Heard also starred in movies including Cat People, After Hours and Sharknado, and received an Emmy award for a guest role in the HBO series The Sopranos as Vin Makazian, a corrupt New Jersey detective. Jeff Bridges, his co-star in the 1981 neo-noir classic Cutter’s Way, led tributes on social media on Saturday, saying Heard was “a wonderful actor”.

Heard was born in 1946 in Washington DC. He started his career on stage in the late 1970s and most recently played a character named Andrew in Living Among Us, a forthcoming movie about vampires. Variety reported that he was recovering from back surgery in a hotel room when he died, and that the Santa Clara medical examiner’s office had confirmed the death.

Heard was best known for his role as Peter McCallister, father of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin in the Home Alone series, a role he struggled to define at first. While Home Alone was filming, Heard said in interviews that he wondered what Peter McCallister did for a living and how funny a concerned parent could be.

“He’s a gynecologist. And he’s got, what, 12 kids or something?” Heard told the AV Club in 2015, while he was appearing in the Lizzie Borden Chronicles. “On Home Alone, Catherine [O’Hara] and I, we didn’t know if we could be funny. I think we even said something to each other about it.

“We were the only two people in the movie who didn’t know how funny the movie was, because we were the parents that had left our child, and she had to run around hysterically, having abandoned a seven-year-old or whatever he was.”

Heard expressed unease with how the role in the smash hit defined his career, and even considered passing on the movie’s sequel. More than once, he said he wanted to “put to rest the Home Alone dad image”.

When he took a role in Sharknado, an unlikely hit for which he predicted success, he said: “I’m going to be the Sharknado drunk instead, hopefully.”

Heard with co-star Catherine O’Hara in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, from 1992. Photograph: Century Fox/REX/Shutterstock

Heard also said that it surprised him when some roles, such as a 1989 made-for-TV movie called Cross of Fire, did not receive more attention.

“I wondered why it didn’t get more â€" notoriety let’s put it that way,” he told AV Club, about a film in which he played the 1920s Ku Klux Klan leader and Indiana politician DC Stephenson.

“The character was real, it was a true story, and it revealed something about the nature of racism in this country, about this horrible guy, and how he could ever have been potentially nominated for the presidency of the United States.”

Recently, Heard was cast in a wide range of TV shows and movies, ranging from crime serials such as NCIS to the 2015 film The Murder Pact. Paying tribute on Saturday, actors and celebrities mentioned his “artistry” and sense of humor.

“John Heard â€" what a wonderful actor,” said Bridges. “We were in the movie Cutter’s Way together and I got to experience his artistry and dedication first hand.”

The comedian Marlon Wayons, who starred with Heard in White Chicks, said they “shared a lot of laughs”. “Thank you for all your contributions to our beloved industry,” the comedian wrote on Instagram. “May you live forever through your vast body of work.”

The actor James Woods wrote: “Devastated to hear of the passing of lifelong friend John Heard. A complex and brilliant man and a true artist. I will miss him dearly.”

Heard was married to Margot Kidder, the actor who played Lois Lane in Superman, for just six days in 1979. He had a son, Jack, with the actor Melissa Leo, followed by a rocky custody battle in which Heard was arrested for assault and stalking. From a later marriage, Heard had a son, Max, and a daughter, Annika. His son Max died in 2016, aged 22.

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