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Actor Christopher Evan Welch, a Woody Allen favorite who worked on the director’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Whatever Works, died Monday in Santa Monica. He was 48.
The actor was diagnosed with lung cancer three years ago, and Welch’s agent, Scott Metzger of Paradigm, told The Hollywood Reporter that “his body just caught up with him.”
Welch had recently moved to the Los Angeles area after landing a role in the upcoming HBO single-camera comedy Silicon Valley from Mike Judge.
Welch, who did a lot of voiceover work during his career, served as the narrator for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), weaving in and out of the story of two young women (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson) who vacation in Barcelona one summer and experience love in different ways.
Later, in Whatever Works (2009), Welch played a charming, nonsterotypical gay character, Howard, who gets the guy in the end.
A native of Fort Belvoir, Va., Welch had small roles in such films as The Stepford Wives (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Synecdoche, New York (2008), Our Idiot Brother (2011), The Master (2012), Lincoln (2012) and Admission (2013).
Welch also played analyst Grant Test on the short-lived AMC conspiracy series Rubicon that aired in 2010.
He provided the voice of Miles “Tails” Prower on the animated TV show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in the 1990s and later appeared on such series as The Practice, The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, Law & Order, The Good Wife and Elementary.
Welch, who attended the University of Dallas and the University of Washington, made his Broadway debut in a 1997 revival of the comedy London Assurance; received an Obie for his work as Mitch in Ivo van Hove?s 1999 production of A Streetcar Named Desire; played opposite Liam Neeson and Laura Linney in a 2002 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; and teamed with Edie Falco in February in the off-Broadway family drama The Madrid.
The actor also narrated several audiobooks, turning in a notable performance as the insightful dog Enzo in 2009’s The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, and enjoyed a cult following as the lead singer of the Seattle-based band The Ottoman Bigwigs.
Survivors include his wife Emma and 3-year-old daughter June Harper, his mother Katherine, his father William, his brother Derek and sister McKenna.
Events celebrating Welch’s life are being planned for the Dallas area this month and for Manhattan in late January.
The family asks that donations for his daughter’s education be sent to Emma Roberts Welch; c/o The Law Offices of Michael W. Hubbard; P.O. Box 180656; Dallas, TX 75218 or via paypal.com to Christopherevanwelchmemorial@yahoo.com.
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