Character player often in menacing or hard-bitten roles, J.E. Freeman worked on daytime soaps in New York and on stage in San Francisco -- winning praise for his performances in "American Buffalo" and "Getting Out" -- before moving to Los Angeles in the mid 80s and settling into continuous work in TV and films. Freeman started working in films around 1981, playing a small role in the Chuck Norris actioner, "An Eye for an Eye," and as the "Tow Truck Dude" in "Martial Arts." Although he won praise for his lead role as Ed Sloan, the uneducated man who commits murder to support his wife in "Hard