Gerrit Graham, the actor, screenwriter and songwriter whose work ran from cult film to television and music, died Tuesday in Rhinebeck, N.Y., at 77. He had suffered from lung disease, among other ailments.
For many viewers, Graham was best known as Beef, the glam rocker in Brian de Palma's Phantom of the Paradise, a role that made him a fixture of midnight-movie lore. He began his career alongside Robert De Niro in Hi Mom! and Greetings, then kept moving through film and television with credits in Demon Seed, Pretty Baby, Child’s Play 2, National Lampoon’s Class Reunion, Seinfeld, Laverne and Shirley, The Wonder Years, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.
His reach went beyond acting. As a screenwriter, Graham worked on The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company and episodes of The Twilight Zone, and he co-wrote the Disney adaptation of Prince and The Pauper with his brother, Chris Hubbell. He also worked with Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, joining him on Victim or The Crime, a song first recorded by The Grateful Dead for Built To Last and later by Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman on their 1998 Live album.
That range is what made Graham unusual: he moved from live-action comedy and genre film to animation and songwriting without ever settling into one lane. He was born in New York City to John and Janet, and his family lived in Missouri and Michigan before settling in Chicago. After caring for his mother in California, he spent the last 30 years of his life in Rhinebeck, N.Y., where he also served on the Burger Hill Preservation Society.
Deborah, whom he married in 1982, and their two children, Jack and Henry, remain at the center of the family he left behind. He is also survived by his brother, Sam; his daughters-in-law, Talia and Joelle; and his four grandchildren, Nolan, Micah, Vera and Joey. The unanswered question is not what Graham contributed — the record is broad and clear — but how much more he might have done if illness had not narrowed the final stretch of a life that kept crossing from one medium to another.
