Art LaFleur Dead: ‘The Sandlot’ Actor Dies In Los Angeles Home After Long Battle With Parkinson’s

Art LaFleur, who was famous for playing Babe Ruth in “The Sandlot,” has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 78.

The prolific character actor passed away Wednesday, Nov. 17, in his Los Angeles home surrounded by his kids and wife, Shelley. He was in hospice care, but he was cracking jokes until the very end, a source told TMZ.

The same source indicated that LaFleur wanted to make his family laugh even when he was already struggling with his condition. The actor battled with atypical Parkinson’s disease for the past 10 years leading to his death.

Addressing her husband’s passing, Shelley issued a statement to USA Today this weekend saying that Art will live on through his work in the industry and the relationships he built through the years.

“To say Art will be missed dearly would be an understatement. He left a legacy larger than his personality and while his absence is a void that can never be filled, his warmth will always be felt. Art lives on through his work, stories about his life and the relationships he built with everyone he knew,” she said.

She also paid tribute to her late husband via Facebook on Thursday. In her post, she called LaFleur a “generous and selfless man” to every person he met, especially to his friends and family.

Shelley also expressed how lucky she was to have shared a 43-year relationship with Art since he cherished and adored her like no other. “Art was larger than life and meant the world to us,” she concluded her post.

Although Art was mostly known for his role in the 1993 baseball movie series, he has starred in a number of other films, including “Field of Dreams” alongside Kevin Costner, “The Blob,” “Cobra” and the “Santa Clause” films.

LaFleur also made a number of appearances on TV shows, such as “M*A*S*H,” “The A-Team,” “Northern Exposure,” “Lou Grant,” “Soap,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Thirtysomething,” “Malcolm in the Middle, “Doogie Howser,” “Baywatch,” “House” and “The Mentalist,” according to Deadline.

Interestingly, despite his long list of TV and movie credits, Art didn’t actually start acting until he was in his 30s. It was only in 1975 when he moved to Los Angeles from Chicago when he decided to get into the business at 32 years old.

In a 2011 interview, the actor revealed that he actually wanted to be a writer. However, a friend had convinced him to take acting class to hone his craft. He eventually found himself acting in front of the camera.

“A friend of mine convinced me. I thought I wanted to be a writer and the only person I knew out here was an actor that I had known in Chicago. He convinced me that an acting class would help my writing. So I started studying acting with that in mind. And after about six months I just got more interested in the acting side of it,” he said at the time.

Even if he started late, Art managed to continuously land roles in the 40 years he spent in the showbiz industry. His final working engagements included an appearance on “Key & Peele,” “The Last Treasure Hunt” and the made-for-TV movie “Dive” in 2017.