Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Actor Charles Dierkop Dead at 87

Charles Dierkop, the actor known for his roles in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and Police Woman, has died. He was 87.

Dierkop died on Sunday following a recent heart attack and a case of pneumonia, his daughter Lynn told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. The star died at Sherman Oaks Hospital in California, per the publication.

Born in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1936, Dierkop also starred alongside Rod Steiger in 1964’s The Pawnbroker and played a mobster in the 1967 gangster flick The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Two years later, Dierkop landed the role of outlaw George “Flat Nose” Curry in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He worked alongside Paul Newman in the Western film after also starring alongside the late actor, who died in 2008 at age 83, in 1961’s The Hustler. The pair went on to work together again in 1973’s The Sting, which also starred his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid costar Robert Redford and Robert Shaw. Dierkop portrayed bodyguard Floyd in The Sting.

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Recalling landing the part of "Flat Nose," Dierkop — who according to THR broke his nose several times in fights as a kid — told producer Rob Word in a 2018 interview, “My agent was on a plane reading a script and it says, ‘Flat Nose Curry’ … I think I have someone in mind. So I got an interview with [director] George Roy Hill and got cast, quite simply.”

Dierkop’s work also extended to TV, with the actor appearing in Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show and Police Woman with Angie Dickinson. Dierkop played Detective Pete Royston in the series, which ran from 1974 to 1978.

The star also made an appearance in R.E.M.’s 1992 music video “Man on the Moon,” in which Dierkop can be seen sitting at a bar.

In a 2017 interview with Star Trek, Dierkop reflected on playing Argelian Morla in a 1967 episode titled “Wolf in the Fold” and shared how people were still approaching him about the character decades later.

Admitting he was “just trying to get work” when he scooped the role, Dierkop called the response from fans “amazing.” 

“Like I said, in the beginning, it was just another show for me, and it was another science-fiction type show. I'd done other ones,” said Dierkop. “I was at a reunion event on the lot. I don’t know what anniversary. Gene Roddenberry was there … There's a big, long line of people outside, waiting to see people from the show come in, trying to get autographs. They were saying, ‘There's Morla, Mr. Morla from Wolf in the Fold!’ I didn't even remember what the title of the episode I did was. They're remembering me all these years later. That's when I first really realized how big this was.”

According to THR, Dierkop was married to Joan Addis from 1958 until their divorce in 1974. The pair, who met at the American Foundation of Dramatic Arts, shared two children: son Charles Jr., who died in 1990 at age 29, and daughter Lynn.