Edward Woodward Passes Away

Source: Reuters

Edward Woodward, star of Robin Hardy's 1973 cult film The Wicker Man and TV's "The Equalizer", has died at 79. His agent, Janet Glass, said he had been ill for some time, and passed on in a hospital, surrounded by family and friends.

In The Wicker Man, Woodward plays Sergeant Neil Howie, who travels to the island of Summerisle to search for a missing girl. He is misled and finds his strict Christian beliefs increasingly violated by the island's unusual inhabitants and customs, which slowly reveal themselves to be Pagan. The film, which co-stars Christopher Lee, was remade in 2006 by Neil LaBute with Nicolas Cage in the Woodward role, and in 2007, Woodward himself lightly spoofed his character in Edgar Wright's cop comedy Hot Fuzz.

On television, the actor starred in the spy thriller "Callan" from 1967 to 1972, which shot the actor to fame in the UK, and also returned for the feature film Callan in 1974. From there, he went on to do "The Equalizer" in the US, a similar show about a private detective that ran from 1985 to 1989 and garnered the actor most of his American fame. Woodward took home an Emmy for his role in "The Equalizer". A big-screen remake has been in the works for several years now.

Woodward is survived by his wife (English actress Michele Dotrice), and four children (one by Dotrice and three from a previous marriage).