Nicholas Worth, the thick set character actor who cheerfully played in a series of "B" films such as Swamp Thing and Darkman and developed a loyal cult following in the process, died on May 7 of heart failure at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. He was 69.

He was born on September 4, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri, and by his own account, had a desire to be an actor since childhood. He earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and spent three years as an Army paratrooper stationed in Kentucky. When he got out, he relocated to Los Angeles and continued his drama studies at the acclaimed Pasadena Playhouse.

Worth made an inauspicious film debut in Reverend Billy Graham's religious independent For Pete's Sake (1968), but by the '70s, he found his niche offering his heavy presence in such cult films as Scream Blacula Scream (1973), The Terminal Man (1974); and several television shows: Baretta, Starsky and Hutch, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Charlie's Angels. By the '80s, he found his niche, as the twisted serial killer in Don;t Answer the Phone (1980), Bruno the comic henchman in John Carpenter's Swamp Thing (1982); Ray, the violent perpetrator in the disturbing telefilm The Rape of Richard Beck (1985); and a less than attractive a trans adult-store costumer in the popular John Candy comedy Armed and Dangerous (1986).

By the '90s, the good roles were harder to come by, but he was still a good heavy as Pauly in Darkman (1990); he was the only salvageable component in the Pam Anderson's critically assailed Barb Wire (1996); and offered a strong performance in the quirky Slaves of Hollywood (1999). Star Trek fans got a taste of Worth, when he appeared in heavy make-up, as Lonzak in Star Trek: Voyager in 2001. He had no known survivors.