The Kentuckian was cast as Bobby Tripe in John Boorman's 1972 hit thriller 'Deliverance' alongside Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ronny Cox.
But his character also had the misfortune of being subjected to rape by two Apalachian mountain men in one of the most disturbing moments of 1970s cinema.
Even in this era where we have grown accustomed to screen violence, the rape scene in 'Deliverance' still has the power to shock and disgust.
But it also set Beatty on a path where he became one of Hollywood's most reliable supporting actors.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1937, he sang in the gospel halls and barbershop quartets of St Matthews and landed a scholarship as an acapella group singer in Transylvania University in Lexington in his home state.
However he fell in love with theatre, working in Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana in the 1960s.
It was a long apprenticeship before he graduated to the movies and in the same year he appeared in 'Deliverance', he landed a supporting role to Paul Newman, Victoria Principal, Anthony Perkins and Jacqueline Bisset in John Huston's 'The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean'.
A year later, he was in another film with Bisset, Ryan O'Neal and Warren Oates - Bud Yorkin's 'The Thief Who Came to Dinner' which received lukewarm notices.
It wasn't until 1975 when Beatty would again make his mark, teaming up with the maverick director Robert Altman in 'Nashville' as the wayward husband of Lily Tomlin's gospel singer Linnea Reese.
In 1976, he played the state attorney investigator Martin Dardis in Alan Pakula's 'All the President's Men' who leaked key information to Carl Bernstein linking the Nixon Campaign to the Watergate break-in.
The real life Dardis hated the way he was depicted in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book and complained that Beatty had portrayed him as a buffoon in the movie adaptation.
Also that year Sidney Lumet cast him as the chairman of the company Peter Finch's deranged, ranting TV newsman Howard Beale works for in the satire 'Network'.
Working from a blistering, dark screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, Beatty landed an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, thanks to a stunning tirade, claiming there are no such things as nation states, only money.
It would be his only shot at Oscar glory but Beatty lost out to his fellow 'All the President's Men' co-star Jason Robards.
Beatty would, nevertheless, continue to carve out a career as a reliable character actor in a variety of Hollywood big budget movies and indie fare.
He teamed up with John Boorman on his much maligned sequel 'Exorcist II: The Heretic'.
There was a box office hit in 1978 in the form of Richard Donner's 'Superman' with Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and Marlon Brando. Beatty played Otis, the bumbling henchman to Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor.
He reprised the role two years later in Richard Lester's enjoyable sequel 'Superman II'.
John Huston cast him in his acclaimed adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood' with Brad Dourif as the eccentric preacher in the Church of Truth Without Christ.
Beatty played a disapproving father in Steven Spielberg's madcap Second World War comedy flop '1941' which starred Treat Williams, Nancy Allen, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
But he also sustained his career throughout the 1970s right through to 2013 with guest appearances in hit TV shows such as 'The Waltons', 'The Rockford Files', 'MASH', 'Highway to Heaven', 'CSI: Crime Investigation' and 'Law and Order'.
There was a recurring role as Ed, the father of John Goodman's Dan Conner in the popular sitcom 'Roseanne'.
However one of his best TV roles was as Detective Stan Bolander for three seasons in Barry Levinson's acclaimed Baltimore police drama 'Homicide - Life On The Street' on NBC.
Beatty landed Emmy nominations for his performances in two TV movies - the Vietnam War mystery 'Friendly Fire' in 1979 in which he played a husband to Carol Burnett's Iowan mother battling the military to find the truth about her son's death and as the Canadian railway owner Cornelius Van Horne in 'The Last Train Home'.
Back on the big screen, there were roles in the early 1980s in Ronald Neame's spy comedy 'Hopscotch' with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, Joel Schumacher's 'The Incredible Shrinking Woman' with Lily Tomlin and Charles Grodin, Richard Donner's 'The Toy' with Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason and the Scottish crime caper 'Restless Natives', directed by Michael Hoffman.
There was a very strong performance as a corrupt policeman in Jim McBride's taut 1987 New Orleans thriller 'The Big Easy' with Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin and John Goodman and as a Soviet agent in John Mackenzie's espionage thriller 'The Fourth Protocol' starring Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ray McAnally and Joanna Cassidy.
But in 1991, he would net a Golden Globe nomination as the Irish tenor Joseph Locke in Peter Chelsom's beguiling British comedy 'Hear My Song' with Adrian Dunbar, Tara Fitzgerald, David McCallum, Shirley Ann Field and James Nesbitt.
There was a convincing turn as Sean Astin's father in David Anspaugh's well received 1993 college football drama 'Rudy', as well as appearances in Arne Glimcher's Florida thriller 'Just Cause' with Sean Connery, Laurence Fishburne, Ed Harris and Blair Underwood and in Spike Lee's basketball drama 'He Got Game' with Ray Allen, Denzel Washington, Milla Jovovich and John Turturro.
In 1999, Beatty was back working again with Robert Altman in the charming Mississippi ensemble comedy 'Cookie's Fortune' with Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Courtney B Vance, Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell.
Three years later, Beatty turned up as a General in Pete Hewitt's low budget British children's flatulence comedy 'Thunderpants', starring Bruce Cook, Rupert Grint, Bronagh Gallagher, Paul Giamatti and Stephen Fry.
Mike Nichols' enjoyable 2007 comedy drama 'Charlie Wilson's War' saw him play a Democratic Congressman on Capitol Hill opposite Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ken Stott.
There was a very dark role as a construction firm owner in Michael Winterbottom's disturbing 2010 Texan serial killer drama 'The Killer Inside Me' with Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson and Bill Pullman.
But that same year, he provided the voice for Lots O Huggin' Bear to much acclaim in Lee Unkrich's Oscar winning animation 'Toy Story 3' and, a year later, popped up in another animated film, Gore Verbinski's 'Rango' as a tortoise opposite Johnny Depp's lizard and Isla Fisher's iguana.
Beatty was back as a corrupt ex cop and mentor to Woody Harrelson's dirty police officer in Oren Moverman's acclaimed 2011 thriller 'Rampart'.
There was a swansong appearance in 2013 on television in an episode of the NBC talk radio sitcom 'Go On' with Matthew Perry.
On the big screen, his last two roles came that year in David E Talbert's romcom 'Baggage Claim' with Paula Patton and Taye Diggs and in his son, Thomas' comedy 'The Big Ask' with Gillian Jacobs and Zachary Knighton.
Beatty spent the remainder of his years in retirement.
Married four times with eight children, Beatty often battled manic depression throughout his life.
Married four times with eight children, Beatty often battled manic depression throughout his life.
But a dedication to his craft helped him through the tough times.
As a result, Beatty was a respected and much loved character actor who was rarely off our screens because of his huge range as a performer.
Beatty rarely disappointed as a journeyman actor, even in the weakest of his films.
And it is nice to think that despite the rough treatment doled out to his first screen character, future generations will fondly remember him for his performance in 'Toy Story 3' - a disturbed, yet oddly touching role.
Not every actor could pull off that trick but Ned Beatty was one hell of an actor.
(Ned Beatty passed away at the age of 83 on June 13, 2021)
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