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With the death of Charles Grodin, we lost one of the most idiosyncratic, occasionally antic, and fearlessly irksome comic screen talents of our time, an unlikely star with more great performances to his name than many more obvious marquee idols. Whether he was playing the crooked half of a double act with straight arrow Robert De Niro in 1988’s Midnight Run, being slowly driven into madness by Martin Short in 1994’s Clifford, or pitching woo to Miss Piggy in 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper, Grodin made every movie he ever appeared in better—and stranger—than it otherwise might’ve hoped to have been, bringing to the table a skill set that included snarling slow-burn rage, artfully offbeat line readings, and the deflated, exasperated, hangdog air of one whom life has made a punching bag. Nobody played defeat better, but the tale Grodin’s films tell is one of artistic triumph.