Richard Riehle's Cause of Death Revealed as Stroke, With Throat Cancer Listed as Underlying Cause
Richard Riehle, the character actor best known as Tom Smykowski in the 1999 film Office Space, died of a stroke, with oropharyngeal cancer, a type of throat cancer, listed as the underlying cause of death on his death certificate, TMZ reported on Tuesday after obtaining the document.
What the death certificate says
According to TMZ, the certificate records a stroke as the cause of death and oropharyngeal cancer as the underlying cause. TMZ also reported that Riehle, who was 78, was cremated on 23 October. USA TODAY reported TMZ’s account on Tuesday and said it had reached out to Riehle’s representatives for additional comment.
Riehle died on 15 October in Los Angeles, TMZ reported. When TMZ first reported his death, friends told the outlet that he had died of natural causes. The death certificate now gives the fuller medical picture behind that report, according to TMZ.
A career of more than 400 credits
Riehle was a Hollywood veteran with more than 400 acting credits to his name, TMZ reported. Fans remember him best as Smykowski, the Initech employee in Office Space who is laid off and then, after a freak accident, receives a large settlement that lets him pursue his dream of creating the “Jump to Conclusions” mat, as TMZ summarised the character’s story.
His screen work also included Casino, Fried Green Tomatoes and The Fugitive, TMZ reported, along with dozens of television shows across a career spanning five decades. USA TODAY noted that he was best known for Office Space and for the sitcom Grounded for Life, and that his work ranged across horror, comedy, holiday films and crime stories.
Work he did not live to see finished
Before his death, Riehle had filmed scenes for several upcoming movies, TMZ reported. In an earlier report, TMZ said he had never seen the finished versions of some of those projects, including the film Made Vicious, in which his performance will remain. That unfinished work is now part of how colleagues are remembering a performer whose face and voice turned up, reliably and warmly, across decades of film and television.
Sources: TMZ, 27 October 2026; USA TODAY, 27 October 2026.