I remember reading his obituary, some time in the late 90s or early 00s. Unfortunately, I don't remember anything else the obituary said except what I mentioned: shark grin, big teeth, British.

The obit said how you'd be watching some formulaic action flick and getting bored, and then some time in the first 20 minutes they'd cut to the bad guy's henchmen, and there he'd be, grinning with his machine gun. And you'd say "Ah, look, it's ______ __________! At least he's in this movie so it won't completely suck." It went on to say what a bummer it was that he was dead. Might have even read that in The Stranger, though I can't find anything in the archives.

I know as soon as I figure out who this guy is everyone will instantly recognize his face. He's been in everything. He was in lots of James Caan kind of movies, like The Killer Elite. Though he was not actually in The Killer Elite, unfortunately, or I'd know who he was.

Edward Woodward? He only died last year, but he matches your profile.

Way too classy.

Argh. Not Bob Hoskins, he's not dead.

You can't name a single movie?

And Bob Hoskins was pretty heavy set. This guy was fairly skinny.

And his movies were all so forgettable. I don't think he was ever once in a Predator or a Demolition Man. More like The Big Brawl type of stuff, though he wasn't in The Big Brawl.

Think cheap, B grade, made for TV, and the usual scenario was a kingpin with a gang of hired guns, typically hijacking something or pulling a heist. Always there would be hostages.

I can picture his face so clearly but no specifics come to mind...

I think I need to go through a list of all B-grade movies from 1970 to 1995 involving eurotrash terrorists/thieves/thugs who plot to hijack something, steal something or blow something up. And who take some prisoners or hostages. Pretty much all the movies Die Hard was an homage to.

And I'd need to see the photos of the cast -- I don't think the names are going to ring any bells.

I've always wanted to make a "Reverse Directory" or character actors from old movies, with their faces, specifically for things like this. Break 'em out by gender and time period, but after that you'd have to flip through -- but you can flip through images really fast (much faster on paper than on even a Google Images-style webpage).

But god damn it, this is irritatingly hard. And it's the kind of puzzle I can't let go. Gimme one, just gimme one movie title to work with.

See, it sounds like you're describing James Coburn, but he's not British.

Robert Shaw? "Taking of Pelham 123", "Jaws", "The Deep", "Black Sunday"?

You might look through these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_thriller_films:_1970s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_thriller_films:_1980s

Shaw died in '78.

It's possible he was in one of the lesser James Bond movies, likely standing around in the background, with his machine gun, not saying any lines.

I would say not likely with Segal or van Damme; he was more of the prior generation. He might have been up against Charles Bronson or Robert Wagner though.

This is going to drive me mad, you know.

Pat Roach? He appeared in one Bond film and a number of other action-type movies and TV, and he died a few years ago:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0730053/

Pat Roach was burly. This guy was skinny. And the Indian Jones films were *huge*. This guy was more Death Wish or Death Race 2000, not something major like Indiana Jones.

This has been driving me crazy for years. I can see his face so vividly, and I remember reading his obituary.

Or William Prince (the gaunlet, starsky and hutch)
Or Jack Kossen (charlies angels, baretta, magnum force)
Martin Balsam perhaps? (Det. Milton in Psycho)
Roddy McDowell?

Michael Ironside, Martin Balsam, Roddy McDowall were all much bigger stars than this guy. And Vincent Schiavelli was in a lot of big films.

Vladek Sheybal and Steven Keats are much closer to what we're after here.

Can you find any pictures of William Prince? All I can find are Prince William.

The list of James Bond henchmen might be what I need.

I should emphasize that this guy was *not* burly, muscular, or heavy-set. He was on the skinny side and his defining feature was his large front teeth and scary grin. Seems like every film made a point of showing that grin in the first shot of the character.

That is a really good answer, but that's not him. Wikipedia quotes Leonard Maltin saying Walsh played, "quietly sinister white-collar sleazeballs".

My guy didn't play white collar; he was always muscle. Although he wasn't that big; he was a violent henchmen who always looked eager for the shooting to start. And I'm pretty sure he was British, or at least sounded British in most of his roles.

Gary Olsen? :
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647653/

Seems a bit too young to fit the time frame, though. He was in Raw Deal, so maybe that makes for a good jumping-off point for other random '80s "dudes".

How about Bob Peck? :
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0669629/

His credits aren't that numerous, though.

I used the IMDB name search to find these guys, and narrowed it to males born between 1940-1960, and died between 98-02. Interestingly, Brion James sits near the top of that list, after Jim Varney and Phil Hartman.

You could also browse Fametracker's "Hey It's That Guy" page:
http://www.fametracker.com/hey_its_that_guy/

Of course, in my mind, Alexander Godunov is the ultimate "guy with machine gun in an '80s movie", but of course Die Hard was really his only role in that capacity.