Know Your “That Guy”: William Atherton
When you’re dealing with That Guys, you find that a lot of them fall into groups. For August, I thought we could highlight some of the That Guys who exemplify movie douchebaggery, starting with Walter Peck himself, William Atherton.
William Atherton
Born: July 30, 1947
Number of Roles: 76
Best Known for Playing: Slimy, bureaucratic douchebags
First Appearance: Johnson in The New Centurions (1977)
Most Recent Appearance: Ned Bogden on Law and Order: SVU (2010)
Notable Roles:
- Walter Peck in Ghostbusters
- Richard Thornburg in Die Hard and Die Hard 2
- Professor Jerry Hathaway in Real Genius
- Bob Gminski in The Pelican Brief
- Dr. Noah Faulkner in Bio-Dome
- Franklin Murdoch in The Outer Limits “To Tell the Truth”
- Dr. Destiny on Justice League
- Winchester Rep in The Last Samurai
- CIA Agent Block in Into the Sun
- Mickey Rayborn on Life
- Principal Reynolds on Lost
Fun Facts:
- Claimed that due to the success of Ghostbusters, people would heckle him on the street by calling him “dickless”
- Almost injured by the 200 pounds of shaving cream that was dumped on him at the end of Ghostbusters.
- Sang “What’ll I Do”, the main theme for Robert Redford’s film version of The Great Gatsby.