Beau Starr passed away peacefully on Friday, April 24, 2026 in Vancouver, Canada, of natural causes at the age of 81 — and the fans who spent every October rewatching Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 are losing one of the faces that made those films feel grounded, human, and genuinely frightening in a way that had nothing to do with Michael Myers and everything to do with the men and women standing in his path.

Beau played Sheriff Ben Meeker in both Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in 1988 and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers in 1989 — the kind of role that the horror genre depends on completely and almost never gives proper credit for, the decent, determined, ultimately outmatched lawman whose very humanity made the monster more terrifying by contrast. His Goodfellas co-star Christopher Serrone broke the news with an emotional tribute, writing: “Beau enjoyed a rich and meaningful life. He was a son, brother, father, grandfather, actor and NFL/CFL player. Please take a moment to help me remember a great guy. RIP.” The full picture of Beau Starr’s life is the portrait of a man who never stopped reinventing himself — from the New York Jets practice squad in the late 1960s to the Canadian Football League, then into acting through the sketch comedy show Bizarre, through Goodfellas, Speed, Fletch, and four beloved seasons of Due South — a life so varied and so completely, genuinely lived that the Halloween franchise, beloved as it is, turns out to be just one remarkable chapter in a story that deserved far more attention than it ever received.