(
September 27 1934 ) is an
American Character Actor .
Brimley became famous late in life for appearing in such films as ''''.
In a change from his "good guy" roles such as those in ''Our House'', he played William Devasher, the ominous head of security for Bendini, Lambert & Locke in
1993 's
Tom Cruise film, ''
The Firm '', based on the novel by
John Grisham .
Brimley is also well known for his appearances on commercials, namely a series of commercials he did for '' as the U.S.
Postmaster General , a takeoff on his role of U.S. Assistant Attorney General in ''Absence of Malice''.
Brimley, a diabetic, has made a series of commercials for the
Diabetes testing-supplies company
Liberty Medical —Brimley admonishes viewers to "check your blood sugar and check it often."
Brimley was born in . He has campaigned in
Arizona and
New Mexico against laws banning
Cockfighting .http://www.all-creatures.org/adow/cam-anfi-20050223.html Wilford currently resides on a ranch back in his home town. He is also a blacksmith best known by his trade name, Griswold.
Brimley's distinctive appearance and manner of speech have lead to a number of parodies over the years.On ''
Saturday Night Live '', he was played by
John Goodman .
On the Internet, the commercial parodies mostly focus on Brimley's pronunciation of diabetes, phonetically translating it as "diabeetus" or "diabeetis".
In early 2006, Brimley was the subject of a series of music videos on YouTube.com that parodied his Liberty Medical commercials and his pronunciation of 'diabetes'. On June 5, 2006
Diabeetis.com was officially launched.
In the
Comedy Central show ''
The Colbert Report '',
Stephen Colbert had a sketch where he plays the voice of Wilford Brimley. In the sketch, "Wilford" calls Colbert very early in the morning, waking him up, having nonsensical conversations, and giving him ideas for Colbert's show. In another sketch "Wilford" calls from Mexico to borrow money to pay his cockfighting debts, but ends when one of the birds attacks his eyes. In the television series ''
Strangers With Candy '', Colbert-as-Brimley makes a cameo in the episode ''Who Wants Cake?'' as the gruff narrator of the educational audio tape "Retardation: A Celebration." Colbert look alike with an eagle showed up in a recent episode.
In the short-lived sketch comedy program ''
The Ben Stiller Show '', several sketches involve a Brimley-like character pitching "Grady's Oats," a take-off on the actor's Quaker Oats ads. This depiction, contrasting strongly with the staid Brimley, has the pitchman talking to imaginary oat buds and menacing children in his back yard with a pistol.
During the era of his appearances in commercials for Quaker Oats, the
Imus In The Morning radio show did parodies of Brimley's commercials, most of which ended with the sound of the Brimley character unzipping his fly as he proceeded to "plop that thing into a heaping bowl of warm Quaker Oats". His Quaker Oats commercial was parodied on the
Canadian Sketch Show ,
Royal Canadian Air Farce .
Wilford Brimley has also been the subject of some of
Greg Gutfeld 's drawings on his late-night
Fox News talk show
Red Eye W/ Greg Gutfeld .
His cockfighting activism and specifically this Wikipedia page was referenced in the TV show ''
The Knights Of Prosperity '' in the "Operation: Steal the Safe" episode.
