Two-Dollar Tribute

I never met actor M. Emmet Walsh. But many years after his thoughtful gesture toward my wife and her "Early Edition" co-workers, his memory-making influence rubbed off on me--for good.

M. Emmet Walsh was the quintessential character actor—the kind of person we all see frequently in movies and television shows, but whose name might elude our memory.

Just three days shy of what would have been his 89^th birthday, Walsh died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday. Odds are you’ve seen Walsh more than a few times.

From the March 22 edition of the Chicago Tribune -- the “character actor” designation is in the headline and the first sentence.

Over the last half-century, he appeared in over 100 movies, coming to prominence in 1978 as the crooked probation officer for Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Straight Time” and appearing in recent major productions like “Knives Out.”

M. Emmet Walsh in “Straight Time.”

Along the way, about midway through his highly regarded film career, Walsh crossed paths with my wife, Bridgett. It was on “Early Edition,” the television drama starring Kyle Chandler that was filmed in Chicago for four seasons.

Although Bridgett was the show’s payroll accountant, for at least one day—November 27, 1996, to be precise—Walsh supplemented everybody’s income. Dressed in a Santa Claus suit that was part of his role,¹ Walsh hunkered down in the production office at a nearby desk.

Walsh in a grainy image from the “Early Edition” episode. He was 61 at the time.

Grabbing a red marker and crew list, over the next hour or longer he scrawled the date, each person's name, a “Happy Holidays” and his signature on a stack of $2 bills.

There were upwards of 100 of them, maybe more, Bridgett recalls. Whatever the number, the point is this: to devote that much effort and expense, Walsh must’ve gotten a kick out of it.

And as you might imagine, this was no isolated incident.

When I did an online search for his name along with “two-dollar bill,” a BBC story referenced a social media tribute from “Knives Out” director Rian Johnson that makes clear he kept at this generous tradition.

Walsh wasn’t only a character actor. He was a character in real life, too.

He reveled in creating memories. Because of their relative scarcity², two-dollar bills have an outsized capacity to create enduring memories. On top of that, people tend to hang onto them for a really long time. Look at us: We’re in Year 28 with the Walsh-inked bill ourselves.

For over 20 years, I would periodically peer at the currency, a quirky and whimsical memory that wasn’t even really my own. Much of the time it took up residence inside a small decorative box that also held a few foreign coins; other times, it would be out in the open, getting some fresh air and standing at attention alongside bookshelf tsochkes.

In recent years, it has set up shop inside a drawer next to Bridgett’s work desk. Just minding its own business, keeping Post-it notes, stamps and paper clips company.

Sometime around 2018, it had become so much a part of our day-to-day woodwork that a tipping point happened inside me. A thought that had apparently been germinating in my mind bloomed into focus:

I can do that, too...I can be the guy who gives two-dollar bills to people.

I made an inquiry at the bank, found out I could swap other denominations for these two-dollar babies, and I was off to the races.

There’s never been a grand plan. I’ve never written my name on the hundreds (over a thousand?) two-dollar bills that I’ve unshackled from the bank’s drawers. It’s just that I don’t feel quite right without at least a few of the Thomas Jeffersons on me.

Tip jars are a recurring landing spot, but the opportunities and permutations for their deployment are infinite. A few examples:

• For Bridgett's most recent birthday, my gifts included 27 two-dollar bills.

• Last year, when a friend moved to Montana and shared his new address, I immediately slipped a two-dollar bill inside a card and dispatched it. I wanted his first “bill” not to be one that he had to pay, but something he could slide into his wallet. Upon receiving it he was so giddy that he shot a video sharing the moment with our circle of friends.

• When our daughter went to Puerto Rico for spring break last week, I gave her four twos—one for her and three for her travel companions.

My determination to dole out twos has met with some resistance, becoming something of a running joke with family members. They grow mortified or annoyed when I offer to pay for routine purchases with a bunch of ’em.

Nevertheless, I persevere. Putting these seldom-seen bills out into the wild usually brings a smile to others’ faces. And it always makes me happy. In that respect, I’d like to believe that I have at least some level of kinship with the one-and-only character M. Emmet Walsh.

1. Walsh appeared in the 11^th episode of the series’ first season, airing on December 21, 1996, according to this Wikipedia page. In all, the series was on the air for four seasons and racked up 90 episodes along the way.

For those might be interesteed, here’s a more detailed plot synopsis of the episode, as described at this IMDB link:

”Tis the Yuletide season, and Chuck is about to embark on an exciting skiing trip when his car is impounded. After becoming belligerent with the police, Chuck is thrown into a jail cell with a man who believes he is Santa Claus. They escape in a stolen car and head for McGinty's Bar. Meanwhile, Gary and Detective Crumb try to catch a mad bomber, only to discover the bomber is actually stalking them. They finally catch up to him in McGinty's, where he is threatening to blow the place up. Chuck and Santa Claus show up, and a standoff occurs until Santa grabs the bomb, rushing outside where it promptly detonates, killing Santa. Later, Chuck and Gary both receive very special Christmas presents, causing them to wonder if Santa really was blown up.”

2. In 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) made 128 million two-dollar bills. Sounds like a lot! But let's get a little context. It’s less than half the next-least-made bill ($20) and barely 5% as much as the 2.4 billion one-dollar bills that the BEP churned out. Going deeper into this rabbit hole: the second-most-produced denomination is the $100 bill (1.33 billion), followed by the $5 bill (881 million) and the $10 bill (480 million).

For more data, going back years, dig in here.

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