Slap Shot (1977)
George Roy Hill's 1977 minor league hockey comedy. Paul Newman as player-coach of dying franchise.
Strother Martin delivered the failure to communicate line in Cool Hand Luke, which has been quoted, sampled and parodied so widely that many people who use it have never seen the film.
He specialised in unpleasant small men, in The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and True Grit, and had the useful quality of appearing genuinely nervous.
He was a competitive diver and swimming instructor before acting, which is not the impression the screen presence gives.
Slap Shot gave him a late comic role, and he worked constantly in westerns for two decades.