5 days ago
The Truman Show actor who also appeared in Roseanne and ER dies aged 79
A Minnesota restaurateur and actor with credits in The Truman Show and Roseanne passed away after a decades-long battle with lung issues.
Joe Minjares, 79, died on Monday after he had been hospitalized for pneumonia and lung-related issues, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Minjares owned several businesses in the Twin Cities over the years and worked as an actor with roles as recent as this year.
He played a bartender in the 1998 hit film The Truman Show and made appearances as a cop on Roseanne and a character on ER, according to his IMDB.
Born in Minnesota, he graduated from Central High School in Minneapolis, then served in the US Army's intelligence division during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968.
In 1971, Minjares and his wife, Sue, purchased the Colonial Inn and turned it into their family-run Tex-Mex restaurant, Pepitos.
Eventually, they bought the Parkway Theater next door to Pepitos and turned it into a hub for the performing arts.
Lizz Winstead, co-creator of 'The Daily Show,' recalled working with Minjares in the 1980s and 90s and going on stand-up comedy tours with him.
'I think of him as a community builder like no other — funny, smart with a huge heart,' Winstead told the local newspaper.
Jack Reuler, a fellow community theater owner and the founder of the Mixed Blood Theatre, said he'd often cast Minjares in his shows and even encouraged the actor to try writing his own plays.
'For all his success in show business and in restaurants, Joe was all about his love for family,' Reuler said.
Minjares went on to write several plays, including 'The King of Kosher Grocers,' 'Minnecanos,' and 'River Road Boogie: The Augie Garcia Story.'
Minjares' longtime publicist and family friend, Martin Keller, said, 'Joe had a natural writing gift and he really leveraged it in his plays. He had a look that Hollywood liked.'
Although his official cause of death has not been determined, Minjares had a decades-long battle with lung issues.
He had dealt with pulmonary fibrosis since a 2011 diagnosis and had a lung transplant in 2017, according to Bring Me The News.
He is survived by five of his children, 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
