Rip Torn.
(Image credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Emmy Award-winning actor Rip Torn, whose career spanned seven decades and included a lauded stint on The Larry Sanders Show, died on Tuesday. He was 88.

Torn's publicist confirmed his death to The Associated Press, and said he was surrounded by family when he died. Born Elmore Rual Torn in Texas, he started using the name "Rip" as a boy, and despite being pressured by other actors and managers to go by his birth name, he refused. Trained at the Actors Studio, Torn inspired his cousin, Sissy Spacek, to get into acting.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.