Leo Burmester (February 1, 1944 – June 28, 2007) was an American actor who often played police officers, such as in the TV series True Blue and rural types on TV and in films. Onstage, he performed as Osric in Hamlet for the New York Shakespeare Festival, as well as in such Broadway hits as Big River, and as the heartless innkeeper, Thenardier, in the original Broadway cast of Les Misérables.
Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996), and also for directors such as John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
Burmester was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and studied at Western Kentucky University as a biology major before switching to drama. After receiving an MFA from the University of Denver, he taught college for a year before taking the plunge as a working actor.
Burmester appeared with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, originating roles in the plays Getting Our and Lone Star, and eventually recreating them in his Off-Broadway and Broadway debuts, respectively. He made his feature film debut in House of God (1979), but first worked in a big budget project with Cruising (1980), and had a featured role as the mortuary director in Honky Tonk Freeway (1981). Burmester played one of the FBI agents hounding the faux Rosenberg couple in Daniel (1983).
He played Holly Hunter's father in the prologue of Broadcast News (1987), and the bum in front of The Plaza in Big Business (1988). Roles started to get larger with James Cameron's The Abyss (1989), as Catfish DeVries, decompression expert.
Although thought to have died of leukemia, death was caused by a tick bite that was complicated by his compromised immune system. He died at age 63 in June 2007.
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