{"id":187500,"date":"2025-10-09T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187500\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T07:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:23:10","slug":"ron-dean-dead-at-87-risky-business-and-the-breakfast-club-star-passes-away-after-battling-long-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/187500\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Dean dead at 87: Risky Business and The Breakfast Club star passes away after battling long illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Dean, famous for his roles in Risky Business and The Breakfast Club, has passed away at the age of 87.<\/p>\n

The actor died on Sunday\u00a0at a hospital in Chicago<\/a>, his partner of 40 years, Maggie Neff, told TMZ<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

His cause of death is unclear at this time, but\u00a0Neff shared he’s been battling a long illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘He passed at exactly 4 PM, after his beloved sisters had said their goodbyes. He hung on like a warrior to say goodbye to his little sisters,’ she told the publication.<\/p>\n

‘Then we were alone, and in my arms, I held his hand, and he trusted me when I told him that it was alright to let go. What an honor!’<\/p>\n

Dean was known for often playing detectives and law-enforcement characters in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ron <\/p>\n

Ron Dean, famous for his roles in Risky Business and The Breakfast Club, has passed away at the age of 87; Dean seen in a still from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008)<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The actor died on Sunday at a hospital in Chicago, his partner of 40 years, Maggie Neff, told TMZ. His cause of death is unclear at this time, but Neff shared he’s been battling a long illness; Dean seen in a still from The Breakfast Club (1985) with\u00a0Emilio Estevez<\/p>\n

One of his earliest roles was as a detective in Risky Business (1983), alongside Tom Cruise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dean \u2014\u00a0born in Chicago, Illinois \u2014 also starred alongside Cruise in The Color of Money (1986), and Cocktail (1988), where he played Cruise\u2019s uncle.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood vet also played Emilio Estevez’s father in The Breakfast Club (1985).<\/p>\n

His credits include playing Detective Kelly in the 1993 thriller The Fugitive, which also starred Harrison Ford, a role alongside William Shatner in T.J. Hooker, and an appearance in The Package (1989), which starred Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also appeared as Detective Michael Wuertz in Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar-grossing Batman film, The Dark Knight (2008).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following his death, fans took to social media to remember the star.<\/p>\n

‘He was a Chicago cop in every single movie that included Chicago cops for about 40 years,’ one fondly wrote.<\/p>\n

‘RIP Ron Dean. You will be remembered for that role which only you could have done in The Breakfast Club.’<\/p>\n

‘Very good in The Fugitive and The Dark Knight,’ another added.<\/p>\n

Dean was a frequent collaborator with director Andrew Davis, appearing in several of his films, including Code of Silence, Above the Law, The Guardian, Steal Big Steal Little, and Chain Reaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Davis told Deadline<\/a> in a statement: ‘Ron Dean was my dear friend and a tremendous actor. He was the essence of what Chicago talent represented.’<\/p>\n

‘Having a very troubled youth Ron turned his life around to have a wonderful career as a loving, decent human being and respected talent.’<\/p>\n

His partner Maggie also told Deadline, ‘It’s hard to capture what an extraordinary human being Ron was.’<\/p>\n

\"'He <\/p>\n

‘He passed at exactly 4 PM, after his beloved sisters had said their goodbyes. He hung on like a warrior to say goodbye to his little sisters,’ she told the publication; Dean seen in a still\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dean <\/p>\n

Dean was known for often playing detectives and law-enforcement characters in his career; The actor pictured in a still from\u00a0The Fugitive (1993)<\/p>\n

\"One <\/p>\n

One of his earliest roles was as a detective in Risky Business (1983), alongside Tom Cruise;
Seen in a still from Risky Business\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"He <\/p>\n

He also starred alongside Cruise in The Color of Money (1986), and Cocktail (1988), where he played Cruise\u2019s uncle; Cruise seen in a still from\u00a0Cocktail<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"Following <\/p>\n

Following his death, fans took to social media to remember the star<\/p>\n

‘One glamorous woman friend of Ron’s once told me that she’d rather grab a hot dog with Ron Dean than have a fancy dinner with some rich bloke. I have always felt the same way.’<\/p>\n

Dean’s TV career was prolific, with credits including NYPD Blue, Frasier, ER, The West Wing, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He last appeared on screen in 2016, portraying Ray Sharansky on NBC’s Chicago P.D.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1996 he was nominated for the Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Supporting Role for Supple in Combat with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2013, he shared a Best Ensemble Cast award from the Chicago Comedy Film Festival for the movie One Small Hitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ron Dean, famous for his roles in Risky Business and The Breakfast Club, has passed away at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,802,97,96,478,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-187500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-tvshowbiz","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}