Christopher Evan Welch is the actor who did amazing work in Seattle theaters in the '90s, moved on to do amazing work in New York theater and American TV and movies in the Oughts, and tragically passed away at age 48 last year.

This week, Vulture writer Jesse David Fox gives a wonderfully in-depth tour of Welch's film and TV work, sparked by his admiration for what he says should have been Welch's breakout role on Mike Judge's new HBO series Silicon Valley (some of the final work Welch filmed before his death). Writes Fox:

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with one of my editors here about potential interviews with cast members of the new HBO comedy Silicon Valley. "We got to get the weirdo angel investor," he said. I agreed. In a hilarious pilot full of standout characters, Peter Gregory was maybe the most dynamic, or at least the strangest. And, having seen the next few episodes, I can attest that the show triples-down on his oddness. I was excited to talk to the actor who plays Gregory. That was until Friday, when I got a series of IMs from my editor. It started with, "So, the guy that plays Peter Gregory in Silicon Valley" and included a link to his IMDb page. There it was: Christopher Evan Welch died on Monday, December 2, 2013 at age 48, after a three-year battle with lung cancer.

Maybe there were some people who knew that the actor had died, but I was not one of them. This sucks. This fucking sucks, I thought, shaken. Silicon Valley would have been his breakout role, that's how good he is in it. I decided to spend the weekend watching as much of his work as I could, hoping to shine a light on a career I unintentionally overlooked.

Read the full thing here.