"The first person I called after hearing Rip Torn died on Tuesday was Elizabeth Ashley, who knew him well.
“I’m seeing so many R.I.P.’s for Rip,” the actress told me. “Are you f—ing kidding me? Rest in peace? If there is a God, Rip is in hand-to-hand combat with him because Rip will argue his way in and fight his way out.”
Torn, most famous as the devious Artie of “The Larry Sanders Show,” was always fighting his way out of something: a troubled childhood, political controversies, marriages and alcoholism."
For more of Michael Riedel's New York Post column CLICK HERE.