Oh, no, this is terrible

The actor John Spencer, who played chief of staff Leo McGarry on "The West Wing", has died at 58 of a heart attack. Most of you know that the first four seasons of that show stand as my all-time favorite dramatic television series, and Spencer was responsible for so many moments...

Moments that were given to him by Aaron Sorkin & the writing staff, and that he was helped with by Tommy Schlamme & the directors. But what he gave back was the kind of pure acting they give Emmys for.

He received five nominations for his work on the series. And won for the episode "Bartlet For America," which tells (in flashback) of his character's relapse into alcoholism during the first Bartlet campaign. At the conclusion of the actor/writer/director commentary for that episode on the third season "West Wing" DVD set, you hear him saying, his voice choked with emotion, "That's the kind of writing and directing an actor waits most of his life for."

So many moments. So many moments that prove that as much as Spencer thrilled, as most actors would, to be speaking Sorkin's unparalleled dialogue...he didn't always need it. As a writer with a gift for dialogue myself you will not often hear me saying an actor doesn't need it-but John Spencer didn't. Not always.

I'm thinking of Leo quietly watching his friend the President almost have a breakdown when he learns that American solders have walked into a trap, on his order, and been killed. Leo grinning and turning his face away when Charlie subtly zings the President. Leo's face when he first sees Bartet in the hospital after the President's been shot. Leo when he learns that without being aware of it, he had committed a war crime while serving in Vietnam.

Of course, when he had that dialogue tossed at him, Spencer knew, like every single member of that fine ensemble cast, how to hit it out of the park. Possibly my favorite:

"I'm tired of it. Year after year after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about the candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly stand to look at it."

Aaron Sorkin has spoken of Spencer's face having a map of the world on it, and he gave that line to Martin Sheen in the Leo's flashback episode as well. His face was extremely memorable and expressive.

I'd stopped watching "L.A. Law" before Spencer became one of the stars of that series, but I tuned back in one night because they were going to deal with the Rodney King verdict riots. Spencer, playing a character I'd never seen before and in whom I had no investment, had a moment that I've never forgotten, when a woman showed him the scar from where, IIRC, she'd been shot. Just his face as he gazed at her. It was amazing.

Like others in the "West Wing" cast, Spencer was one of those actors who once you're made especially aware of him, you see him in a lot of old movies you never realized he was in. He played a lot of cops in movies of the '80s and '90s, from "The Negotiator" to "Hiding Out."

I don't know what else to say except that this is a terrible loss to those of us who admired him. I hope his friends and family take at least some comfort and solace (someday) in the knowledge that he died having done great work, and acknowledged by his fans, critics, and his peers as among the best of the best.

He also spoke the last words of any of the "West Wing" regulars in any Aaron Sorkin-penned script. They were, after Bartlet has invoked the 25th Amendment, stepping down rather than let his country suffer while he is in a personal crisis-his daughter has been kidnapped:

"You're relieved, sir."

You're relieved, John.