A veteran character player who became a child star on stage in the early 1940s and was a familiar face in film and on television since the 1960s, Henry Gibson excelled at playing ineffectual authority figures, colorful oddballs, and "sad sacks." An original ensemble member of the landmark TV comedy variety series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" from 1968 to 1971, he often appeared as a gentle poet clutching a daisy.

Gibson won his greatest acclaim in Robert Altman's "Nashville" (1975) as the haughty country-western singer Haven Hamilton who proclaims the glories of America. Gibson appeared in several other Altman films including "The Long Goodbye" (1973) playing a sinister psychiatrist, "A Perfect Couple" (1979), and "Health" (1980). His distinctive voice also turned up in a number of animated children's series and memorably on screen as Wilbur the pig in "Charlotte's Web" (1972).

Quirky genre master Joe Dante featured Gibson in several films including "Innerspace" (1987), "The Burbs" (1989), and "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (1990). He was also memorable in John Landis' "The Blues Brothers" (1980) as the leader of the Illinois Nazi Party, as a radio personality in "Tune in Tomorrow..." (1990), and in the ensemble of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" (1999).

On the small screen, Gibson remained a fixture with guest stints on scores of series, including "Bewitched," "Love American Style," "Wonder Woman," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Fantasy Island," "Magnum, P.I.," "Newhart," "Murder, She Wrote," "Mad About You," "Sisters," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Charmed." He also enjoyed a season on the daytime drama "Sunset Beach" and was particularly effective in a recurring turn as the stern, often unreasonable judge Clark Brown on the legal drama "Boston Legal." After a long, esteemed career as a beloved comedic and characther actor, Gibson lost his battle with cancer, dying on Sept. 14, 2009 at the age 73.