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The movie world lost Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme to cancer earlier this week.

The 73-year-old Demme, a Long Island native, won an Oscar in 1992 for Silence of the Lambs. He also directed several other major films, including Philadelphia (1993), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Beloved (1998) and Melvin and Howard (1980).

Like many prolific directors Demme had his “stock company,” a stable of actors with which a director is comfortable working who appear in several of his/her films. Among Demme’s “stock company” were two Jersey City natives, Robert W. Castle and Tracey Walter.

Castle was a well-known, activist Episcopal priest who wound up moonlighting as an actor after Demme first chronicled his life in the 1992 documentary Cousin Bobby in which Castle appeared. Castle was Demme’s older first cousin. The two had been out of touch for years.

Cousin Bobby led to 13 dramatic movie roles for Castle over the next 16 years. These included appearances in a quartet of Demme-directed films: Philadelphia, Beloved, The Manchurian Candidate and Rachel Getting Married (2008).

Castle was born and bred in Jersey City. After leaving the area for several years, he came back to his hometown to serve as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church from 1960 to 1968. Castle died in Vermont in 2012 at age 83.

Even though he was born and raised in Jersey City, Walter frequently plays Southerner characters of various social standings. According to Shock Cinema Magazine, Walter graduated from the now-closed St. Mary’s High School in the city’s Downtown section. Walter reportedly was working in an auto parts store when he was bit by the acting bug after seeing an Off-Broadway play.

Walter, 69, has gone on to accumulate more than 170 acting credits. Four of them came in Demme films: Philadelphia, Beloved, The Manchurian Candidate and Married to the Mob (1988).

“Chuck (Charles Napier, another Demme acting stable member) is a wonderful actor,” Demme said once in an interview. “I think any film with him in it benefits enormously. Same thing with Tracey Walter. When I know I’m doing a script, I’ll send it to Tracey and say, ‘Tracey please pick something out.’ We have a lot of fun working together.”

Demme also directed two Academy Award-winning actresses from New Jersey. Meryl Streep, who has been nominated for more Oscars than any actress and won three, played “Eleanor Shaw” in The Manchurian Candidate. She hails from the Basking Ridge/ Bernardsville area.

Anne Hathaway (Millburn) portrayed “Kym” in Rachel Getting Married, a role for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Hathaway would go on to win the coveted statuette, as Best Supporting Actress, four years later for Les Miserables.