Kent Broadhurst, a veteran American character actor and screenwriter best known for roles in *The Verdict*, *Silkwood* and Stephen King's *Silver Bullet*, has died at the age of 86. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2001 Showtime film *Wild Iris*, which earned Laura Linney the first of her four Emmy Awards, underlining his significant, if lower-profile, contribution to American film and television over several decades.

Broadhurst died on 20 May at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, having lived for 63 years in Greenwich Village, New York. Born in St Louis in 1940, he built a long career spanning Broadway, off-Broadway and film, appearing alongside stars such as Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Meryl Streep, and playing a stalker of president-elect John F. Kennedy in the 1983 miniseries *Kennedy*. He was particularly noted for his role as a grieving father in *Silver Bullet* (1985) and later worked on another King adaptation, *The Dark Half* (1993), alongside further film credits including *Léon: The Professional*.