Edward Woodward dead at 79

The Equalizer's Edward Woodward dead at 79

For many reasons that I won't go into here, I never turned on my computer yesterday, so missed learning that one of my favorite character actors died November 16. I'm heartbroken. He had seemed frail, so it's not exactly surprising, but I'm still sad.

Woodward first garnered my attention in Breaker Morant, a movie we were required to watch in high school by our odd history teacher. But I didn't really know who Woodward was until I watched The Equalizer. I doubt I saw the show when it ran, since I was in college, a relatively television-free period for me. But A&E ran episodes in the late afternoon a few years after I left. My dad and I both caught up on the show then, talking about the character and the actor, thoroughly enjoying it. Robert McCall was an unusually complex character, quite unlike similar fare at the time. As the seasons passed, his history and personality were laid out for us, in all its complications.

I've seen Woodward off and on through the years. He was always intense and imminently watchable. He was one of a kind. RIP.