He was all kinds of scary in The Firm.

R. I. P.

Very sad to hear.

But surprising to notice Wilford's birth year as 1934. Would have supposed his arrival to have occurred somewhere along the 1910's because he does play many elder roles (than circa age-52) in those 1980's commercials and, especially as the grandfather figure in 1986's "Our House" (TV series, not to be confused with the 1982-83 hit song by Madness).

My sympathies to Wilford, whose long career in the limelight allows his portraying senior citizens very "naturally."

@Quite, I, too, always imagined Mr. Brimley older than he usually actually was at any given time, as he just had that "old grandpa" sort of look and folksy way about him. Even his name, "Wilford Brimley", sounds like an old-guy name. (My apologies if your name happens to be either Wilford, Wilfred, Wilmer, Wilma, etc., Quite! lol) The massive moustache decidedly added to that general effect!

Yes, that moustache alone would do the trick every time.

Well, they say that Grandpa Jones (born 1913) actually began appearing as his senior citizen persona at the ripe old age of 26 (!)

Talk about trend-setters, right?

Makes you wonder whether or not they chased after Thelma Harper. But, on second thought, probably not.

I don't recall him from The China Syndrome (which I've seen before), but Wilford is an essential part of one of my favorite horror films, John Carpenter's The Thing.

In the latter film, I'll always remember him shouting "I'll kill you!!!" at the other men on that remote Antarctica base as he threw a fit, because he was losing it.