The sprawling ensemble dramas directed by Paul Thomas Anderson in the late 1990s were notable for the roles they offered veteran actors – most prominently Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights (1997) and Jason Robards in Magnolia (1999). Philip Baker Hall, who has died aged 90, brought his characteristic blend of gravitas, daftness and darkness to both of those films playing, respectively, Floyd Gondolli, who predicts the pornography industry’s shift from celluloid to video, and Jimmy Gator, an avuncular yet haunted gameshow host.
Hall’s film career received a much-needed boost when Anderson cast him in a rare leading role in Hard Eight (1996) as Sydney, a hardened gambler navigating his luckless protege (Philip Seymour Hoffman) around craps tables and one-armed bandits. With his pale eyes, grey hair and cool demeanour, Hall matched the film’s wintry Reno location. Gwyneth Paltrow’s character, Clementine, calls him Captain because “you seem like the captain of a ship”.
