https://variety.com/2025/film/news/w...m_term=6431290

A real bummer. I always enjoyed his performances and his even wackier interviews.

This guy was pretty much a straight to video movie staple. He always managed to give a stand out performance in the most ludicrous of films. May he RIP.

He was fantastic as Ramrod in Vice Squad. That's him on vocals for Neon Slime, which played over the opening credits ...


RIP

I’m more familiar with his son’s work but Wings Hauser popped up a lot in those goofy 80s action flicks on late night cable.

Also “Wings” is much cooler than Gerald.

Wings Hauser is a name I hadn't heard in a long time. A great DTV staple and always a joy to watch.

VICE SQUAD was definitely the high point. L.A. BOUNTY and DEADLY FORCE are decent companion pieces, and he’s good in MUTANT and NIGHTMARE AT NOON, too, both with Bo Hopkins. I’d always hoped he’d get a second wind as a character actor later in life (“…and Wings Hauser as ‘The Chief’” or something like that), but beyond guest spots on TV shows for a while, it never really happened or he didn’t pursue it.

Deadly Force is one of my favs...really enjoyed his work for the most part. Too bad he was not a bigger star. At least Cole is.


RIP

He was a shining bright spot in the fiasco known as Champagne and Bullets (one of its many titles)

^ Thanks. Just Watch tells me I can see it free on Tubi.

This might be mentioned in the various obituaries, but a documentary about Wings Hauser, WORKING CLASS ACTOR, has been in production for the last couple of years and was nearly finished, with upcoming distribution by Dark Star Pictures. It’s directed by Steve Mitchell, who made a great documentary about Larry Cohen called KING COHEN, and who appears on countless audio commentaries for lower-budget films, and has produced supplements for those and discs of higher-budgeted films. Wings did participate in this, along with a bunch of folks who worked with him, so the watchability factor for fans hopefully remains strong after his passing.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ry/description


I’ve heard a couple of commentaries for his films where the participants alluded to either a drinking or drug problem he had during those prime B-movie years, and how he could be difficult to work with. I believe it comes up in the NIGHTMARE AT NOON commentary/interview with Nico Mastorakis (though possibly in the past tense, as in he was cleaned up or getting there when he made that film?), but I’m certain there are one or two others who reference it. Drawing blanks at the moment. I wonder if something like that might’ve kept him in the B-movie trenches, not that that was a bad thing for cinema history.

He also had a decent role in Michael Mann’s THE INSIDER:

And for those who enjoy the ‘so bad it’s good’ CHAMPAGNE & BULLETS might also get a kick out of TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE, which has a much higher pedigree and it’s still a jawdropper, with Hauser unleashed with seemingly no direction (along with most of the cast under Norman Mailer). Full movie:

Proud owner of Tough Guys Don’t Dance!!!

^ I didn’t watch HUNTER religiously, but I watched quite a few episodes when it originally aired, including this one, which remained my favourite over the years. I was just 15, but knew Hauser from a couple of videos the family rented (VICE SQUAD and, I think, DEADLY FORCE (?) - my folks were thankfully cool with R-rated action stuff), and I just randomly tuned into this episode not knowing he would be on it, but recognized him right away.

I gave CHAMPAGNE & BULLETS a shot…it was easily one of the worst acted movies I have seen. Sometimes bad is bad.

I could not make it more than 30 minutes.