‘The Truman Show’ and ‘Roseanne’ Actor Joe Minjares Dead at 79

Joe Minjares, the comedian, playwright, and actor who memorably appeared on The Truman Show and Roseanne, died Monday at a hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was 79.

Minjares’s passing was confirmed by his publicist and family friend Martin Keller, who told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the actor had been hospitalized for several days with pneumonia and lung-related issues. According to Bring Me the News, Minjares was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2011 and underwent a lung transplant in 2017.

The Minneapolis native began his entertainment career following a stint in the U.S. Army’s intelligence division during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, getting his start in comedy telling jokes at Pepitos, the Tex-Mex restaurant his family owned for over four decades. After seeing one of his standup performances, Mixed Blood Theatre founder Jack Reuler cast him in shows at Mixed Blood and encouraged him to expand his career to plays, Minjares later going on to write The King of Kosher Grocers, Minnecanos, and River Road Boogie: The Augie Garcia Story.

Minjares brought his career to the screen in the early ‘80s, beginning with a small part in the 1988 movie Patti Rocks, per his IMDb profile. In the decade that followed, he went on to appear in movies and TV shows including The Last of the Finest, The Jackie Thomas Show, and Untamed Heart. In 1988, he appeared as a bartender on The Truman Show, a role he followed just a few years later with a two-episode appearance as a cop on Roseanne in 1993.

His other acting credits include appearances in shows such as ER, NYPD Blue, Sinners and Wonders, and In an Instant, as well as films like Wilson, Nothing to Lose, and I Now Pronounce You Retro & Ellie. On the standup front, he opened for the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Jeff Foxworthy, Andrew Dice Clay, and more.

Paying tribute to Minjares on Facebook, The Daily Show co-creator and Lizz Winstead remembered him as “hilarious human, a kind and generous man who took the Parkway Theater and created a comedy home for me in Minneapolis that is still where I hang my hat when I perform in town.” Winstead added that she owes “a lot to Joe for his commitment to taking a chance on bringing edgy and innovative shows to that stage that spoke truth to power. Thanks Joe for your friendship and for creating such a warm space to perform.”

Minjares is survived by his wife, Susan; children Lenny, Kenny, Paul, and Pamela; siblings Bobby Senkyr, Liz Benson, Starr Acuna, and Alycia Hausladen; and 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.