John Heard, an actor best known for playing Macaulay Culkin's dad in the original "Home Alone" movies, died Friday in Palo Alto, California. He was 72.
The Santa Clarita medical examiner's office confirmed the death to People. According to TMZ, the actor was found dead in a hotel after recovering from a "minor back surgery" on Wednesday at Stanford Medical Center.
In a four-decade career, Heard accumulated scores of credits but was particularly known for supporting roles in high-profile '80s and '90s movies such as "Big," "After Hours," "Beaches," "Gladiator" and "The Pelican Brief."
He was also a familiar face on TV and earned an Emmy nomination in 1999 as a guest actor on the HBO series "The Sopranos," playing a new Jersey cop who leaked information to James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano.
But he is best known for playing the forgetful father of Macaulay Culkin's Peter McCallister in the 1990 box office hit "Home Alone" — a role that he reprised in the 1992 sequel.
