Walter's feature career picked-up in 1977 with a bit in "Annie Hall" as an actor in Rob's (Tony Roberts) TV show. Westerns, road films or otherwise rural-flavored features have included "Goin' South" (1978), "Raggedy Man" (1981), "Honkytonk Man" (1982), "City Slickers" (1991), and "Something Wild" (1986). The latter film was his first for director Jonathan Demme, whose penchant for the outlandish needed Walter to play Mr. Chicken Lickin' in "Married to the Mob" (1988) and gave the actor an offbeat but incisive cameo as the librarian who hassles the HIV-positive protagonist of "Philadelphia" (1993). With his beady but bulging eyes, Walter often embodied a somewhat inscrutable but usually benign weirdness, as in "Repo Man" (1984), as the junkman who embraces the paranormal. He has played villainous as well, most notably as Bob the Goon, one of the Joker's henchmen in "Batman" (1989).
Walters has been especially prolific on TV, where the eccentricity he connotes can instantly milk laughs on any sitcom. His attempts at series (e.g. "Best of the West" 1981-82, as Frog Rothchild Jr.) have not lasted long, but Walter has been prolific in TV-movies including "Mad Bull" (1977) and "Not of This World" (1991), many guest spots, and recurring roles on "The Bronx Zoo" (1988) and "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." (1993).