Michael Jeter

Michael Jeter (/ˈdʒiːtər/; August 26, 1952 – March 30, 2003) was an American actor. Known for his career on stage and screen, Jeter played diverse characters. He won a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. He portrayed Herman Stiles on the sitcom Evening Shade from 1990 until 1994.

Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He studied at Memphis State University and later pursued a career in acting. He made his Broadway debut acting in the musical Once in a Lifetime (1979), followed by G. R. Point. For his role as Otto Kringelein in the musical Grand Hotel (1989) he received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Jeter also portrayed Giuseppe Zangara in the musical Assassins (1989).

Jeter gained fame for his roles in The Fisher King (1991) and The Green Mile (1999). His other notable film roles include in Zelig (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Air Bud (1997), Mouse Hunt (1997), Patch Adams (1998), Jurassic Park III (2001), Open Range (2003), and The Polar Express (2004). He also appeared on Sesame Street's Elmo's World as the other Mister Noodle from 2000 to 2003.

Jeter was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, on August 26, 1952. His mother, Virginia (née Raines), was a housewife. His father, William Claud Jeter, was a dentist. Jeter had one brother and four sisters. Jeter was a student at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) when his interests changed from medicine to acting. He performed in several plays and musicals at the Circuit Theatre and its partner theatre, the Playhouse on the Square, in midtown Memphis. He left Memphis to further pursue his stage career in Baltimore, Maryland.

Jeter's extreme flexibility and high energy led Tommy Tune to cast him in the off-Broadway play Cloud 9 in 1981. He received acclaim for his role in the Broadway musical Grand Hotel, for which he won a Tony Award. He subsequently starred in the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance. Much of his work specialised in playing eccentric, pretentious, or wimpy characters, as in The Fisher King, Waterworld, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Green Mile and Drop Zone. In The Fisher King, Jeter portrayed "an unnamed homeless cabaret singer", and "shimmies across the screen with boundless confidence, turning what might have been a grotesque, or at least merely humorous, part into something noble, even indomitable... In a film unafraid of big acting, Jeter goes bigger than anyone." Occasionally, Jeter was able to stray from type for more diverse characters, such as those he portrayed in Jurassic Park III, Air Bud, and Open Range. Jeter is perhaps most known for his role as convicted felon Eduard Delacroix in The Green Mile, a role for which he was nominated along with the rest of the cast for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

He also played Mr. Noodle's brother, Mister Noodle, on Sesame Street from 2000 to 2003. He appeared in an episode of Touched by an Angel in 1999 as Gus, an insurance salesman who arrives in Las Vegas, in the episode "The Man Upstairs". His last two appearances were in the films Open Range and The Polar Express. Both films were in post-production at the time of his death and, when released, contained a dedication to his memory. The season 35 premiere of Sesame Street, a special entitled "The Street We Live On", was similarly dedicated to Jeter.

Jeter was gay and was in a relationship with his partner, Sean Blue, from 1995 until Jeter's death in 2003.

He was HIV-positive and publicly disclosed his diagnosis in a 1997 interview on Entertainment Tonight. Despite this, he remained healthy for many years. While accepting his 1990 Tony Award, Jeter also announced that he was in recovery from substance abuse.

On March 30, 2003, Blue found Jeter dead at his home in Hollywood Hills, California; he was 50 years old. According to Blue, the cause of death was complications following an epileptic seizure. Jeter was cremated, and his ashes were given to Blue.