{"id":217140,"date":"2025-10-11T16:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T16:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/217140\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T16:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T16:46:07","slug":"ron-dean-chicago-actor-who-overcame-a-troubled-past-to-find-a-tough-guy-film-niche-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/217140\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Dean, Chicago actor who overcame a troubled past to find a tough guy film niche, dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago actor Ron Dean, who had a sort of Where\u2019s Waldo presence in \u201880s and \u201890s movies that needed a no-nonsense character, died Oct. 5 at 87 after a long illness.<\/p>\n

His success was a stunning turnaround after a youth marked by a fatal encounter with a Chicago police officer and years behind bars. Acting paved the road for a second chance in life.<\/p>\n

In what was perhaps his most remembered role, Mr. Dean played one of the Chicago homicide detectives who interrogated Harrison Ford\u2019s character in \u201cThe Fugitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had small roles in a trio of early Tom Cruise movies \u2014 \u201cRisky Business,\u201d \u201cThe Color of Money\u201d and \u201cCocktail.\u201d In \u201cThe Breakfast Club,\u201d he played the strict father of a teenage athlete played by Emilio Estevez. He played a University of Notre Dame football coach in \u201cRudy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cCode of Silence,\u201d he played a Chicago detective alongside Chuck Norris. In \u201cAbove the Law\u201d he played a Chicago police detective alongside action star Steven Seagal and Pam Grier. In \u201cThe Dark Knight,\u201d the 2008 Batman flick that was Mr. Dean\u2019s last appearance in a big movie, he again played a detective.<\/p>\n

His face and presence conveyed as much, if not more, than the few words his characters spoke, friends said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dean\u2019s career as an actor is a second chance story in a life that was derailed at a young age.<\/p>\n

Troubled early years <\/p>\n

Mr. Dean was born Aug. 15, 1938, in Chicago and grew up on the North Side. <\/p>\n

He had a troubled childhood marked by petty crime and bouts in state reform schools.<\/p>\n

In 1955, when he was 16, Mr. Dean escaped from the lockup of a North Side police station, found a gun in the desk drawer of the lockup watchman\u2019s desk and, when confronted, fatally shot Chicago Police Officer Albert Brown, according to reports that appeared in the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n

When police asked why he shot Brown, Mr. Dean replied \u201cI don\u2019t know. He came at me and I shot him,\u201d according to a Sun-Times story.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dean pleaded guilty to murdering Brown and served 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a kid who panicked and made a dreadful mistake, and he knew it all his life,\u201d said his longtime friend and companion Maggie Neff. \u201cHe felt like he got what he deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months after he was released from prison, where he began to write poetry, Mr. Dean auditioned for and landed a role in a Shakespeare play in Chicago.<\/p>\n

He also found work as a bellhop, in a factory and as a bartender and waiter before he began operating one of the city\u2019s first pedicabs and pedaling customers to destinations around Wrigley Field and North Side nightlife districts. He later bought a few more pedicabs and rented them to friends.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ron<\/p>\n

Ron Dean standing next to his pedicab in an undated photograph. <\/p>\n

He took classes from famed Second City improv teacher Del Close and joined one of the theater\u2019s troupes that performed improv in the suburbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t turn his life around immediately, it was a process, but theater definitely saved his life. He didn\u2019t really have anything else going for him,\u201d Neff said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Theater saved his life\u2019 <\/p>\n

Mr. Dean went on to perform at theaters around the city, including the Goodman and Steppenwolf, and in productions in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In 1989, he starred in a production of \u201cBleacher Bums\u201d at the Organic Theater that was directed by Joe Mantegna and co-starred Joel Murray and Chicago-cop-turned-actor Dennis Farina.<\/p>\n

His television work ranged from \u201cCrime Story\u201d to \u201cEarly Edition\u201d and \u201cNYPD Blue,\u201d with sporadic roles in shows like \u201cFrasier,\u201d \u201cThe West Wing,\u201d \u201cChicago P.D.\u201d and \u201cChicago Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe turned his life around and became a very regarded and rewarded actor and a sweetheart of a guy,\u201d said Andrew Davis, the Chicago-born director of \u201cThe Fugitive,\u201d \u201cAbove the Law\u201d and \u201cCode of Silence\u201d who became friends with Mr. Dean.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an absolutely lovely guy and much loved by the Second City community and the entire acting community,\u201d said Second City alum Tim Kazurinsky.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became a mentor to a lot of actors in Chicago,\u201d said his friend, actor Richard Henzel.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dean was a longtime resident of a condo building on Montrose Avenue near the lakefront.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just the nicest, normalest guy. If you were carrying packages, he\u2019d walk over and say, \u2018Let me carry one of those for you,\u2019\u201d playwright and neighbor Vicki Quade said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone came up to him and said, \u2018I just saw \u201cThe Fugitive\u201d on TV again,\u2019 he\u2019d just beam,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dean retired about a decade ago.<\/p>\n

He once auditioned for a film role in which the director put out a casting call looking for a \u201cRon Dean type.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t get the part,\u201d his sister, Lynn Pope, said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago actor Ron Dean, who had a sort of Where\u2019s Waldo presence in \u201880s and \u201890s movies that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-217140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}