John Heard found dead in hotel room

Home Alone and Pelican Brief star was 72

by Jennie Kermode and Amber Wilkinson

John Heard in Home Alone
John Heard in Home Alone

Home Alone star John Heard has died, aged 72.

The actor, whose film roles also included Big and The Trip To Bountiful, was reported by TMZ, who broke the story, to have been found dead on Friday in a California hotel, where he had been recovering from back surgery. The cause of death is not yet known.

Heard was much loved for his turn as Macaulay Culkin's hapless dad, and also appeared in films including After Hours, The Pelican Brief, Cutter's Way, Awakenings, Rambling Rose, and the original Sharknado. He had roles in a number of popular US TV series, including The Sopranos, Prison Break and CSI Miami.

He is survived by children Jack, Max and Annika.

Share this with others on...
News

Inviting curiosity Ildikó Enyedi on the value of science, perception, discovery and Silent Friend

Streaming Spotlight: the rites of Spring We shine our Beltane spotlight on films in which the old ways linger

Fighting fit for a debut feature Valéry Carnoy talks toxic masculinity, memory, confidence and Belgian 'soft-power'

Collective power We look ahead at the programme of this year's Folk Film Gathering

Writing hidden messages Arnaud Desplechin on guilt, melodrama, feeling haunted, and Two Pianos

Clever crafting with Idiots Chris Barfoot on his six-camera set up and three-day shoot of his debut feature

More news and features

We're bringing you news and reviews from the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and Queer East.



We're looking forward to Cannes.



We've recently brought you coverage of Visions du Réel, Fantaspoa, Overlook, BFI Flare and SXSW, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Berlinale, Sundance and Palm Springs.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

Don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.


It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest from the spring events:


Cannes 16 titles added to line-up


Cannes Announces full jury


Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection


Cannes Payal Kapadia heads Critics' Week jury