Geoffrey Lewis, longtime Clint Eastwood costar, dies at 79

Geoffrey Lewis, a veteran character actor and frequent collaborator of Clint Eastwood, has died. He was 79.

Lewis’ death was confirmed by Carleen Donovan, publicist for one of his daughters, actress Juliette Lewis.

He had a heart attack Tuesday while working out with his son Miles at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills. He had experienced heart problems for several years, according to another son, Lightfield Lewis.

Geoffrey Lewis first costarred with Eastwood in the 1973 Western “High Plains Drifter” and would go on to appear in several other films with him, including “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” (1974), “Every Which Way But Loose” (1978) and its sequel, as well as in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” (1997), directed by Eastwood.

Lewis’ other movie credits include “The Great Waldo Pepper,” “Heaven’s Gate,” “Catch Me If You Can,” The Lawnmower Man,” “The Man Without a Face” and “Maverick.”

A prolific television actor, Lewis earned a Golden Globe nomination for his work on the 1980s sitcom “Flo,” a spinoff of “Alice,” and also appeared in such series as “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Lou Grant,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The X-Files” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”

Early Wednesday morning, Juliette Lewis posted a photo of her and her father on Instagram and wrote, “He loved us so. So so much. I am forever my father’s daughter and he will never [be] gone.”

A complete obituary will appear at latimes.com/obits.

Times staff writers Christine Mai-Duc and Steve Chawkins contributed to this report.

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