His was a face that said Chicago, an actor who won praise for the easy authenticity he brought to dozens of roles on local stages and in dozens of films and TV shows. Ron Dean, whose teen years were marked by a tragedy from which many might have never recovered, died Oct. 5 in a Chicago hospital after a long illness. He was 87.
“Ron was one of a kind,” said native Chicagoan and movie director Andy Davis. “His power was not in using lots of words, but in his attitude, his knowledge of mankind from the street to the power brokers. Having been in trouble as a kid, it made him tough and wise, and he turned that into a passion for telling stories. He was loved by cast and crew alike.”
Davis directed Dean in seven films, including “Code of Silence,” “Above the Law,” “The Package,” “The Fugitive,” “Steal Big Steal Little,” “Chain Reaction” and “The Guardian.”
Dean never had starring roles in these films or in the dozens of others in which he performed, but he was a memorable presence onscreen and on stage and in person.
Ronald Charles ”Ron” Dean was born on Aug. 15, 1938, and grew up tough and troubled on the North Side, his early years peppered with petty crimes. In 1955, he escaped from detention in a local police station, discovered a pistol in a desk drawer and, confronted by Chicago police officer Albert Brown, shot him dead.
It was reported in the newspaper that when he was asked why, he responded, “I don’t know. He came at me and I shot him.”
He pleaded guilty and would serve 12 years in prison and then return to Chicago, where he would spend time working a variety of jobs (bellhop, bartender, waiter) as he explored acting and studied improv at The Second City. His steadiest job earned him a bit of notoriety as he became one of the city’s first pedicab drivers, interviewed in print. He bought one of the vehicles (and later bought a few more and rented them to friends) and, for nearly the entire 1970s, worked the Rush Street nightlife area from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. As he told one reporter, “It’s an ideal way to make a living and stay in shape. … Sure I want to make it as an actor. But I’m not going to cry if I don’t.”
But he did, first in small stage roles and then in film and on TV. His list of his credits is lengthy, including “Risky Business,” “The Color of Money” and “The Breakfast Club.” He was a University of Notre Dame football coach in “Rudy.” Perhaps his most famous role was as one of the homicide detectives interrogating Harrison Ford’s character in “The Fugitive.”
On television he was seen in “Crime Story,” “Early Edition,” “NYPD Blue,” “Frasier,” “The West Wing,” “Chicago P.D.,” “Chicago Fire” and other shows
His stage work was equally prolific. In 1989, he starred in a production of “Bleacher Bums” at the Organic Theater that was directed by Joe Mantegna and co-starred that Chicago-cop-turned-actor, Dennis Farina. Reviewing the play for the Tribune, critic Richard Christiansen praised Dean as “the ultimate proletarian actor (who) guarantees the earthy, ethnic, unquenchable presence of (the character) Ziggy.”
Dean stopped acting about a decade ago and spent most of his time with his partner, Maggie Neff, who told People magazine, “Ron and I were kindred spirits. Our connection was instantaneous and remained so for nearly four decades. The love between us was unconditional and permanent. … There was never any question that we would be there for each other in our hour of need. And we always were.”
Gary Houston, a fixture on the local theater scene as actor-director-writer who often shared stages with Dean, said Sunday, “Ron became increasingly interested in writing and was a favorite with audiences attending live, later zoom, original readings by a group called Writers Aloud. His work was funny and frequently hysterical, the product of a mind that I think had been quietly churning stories for years before he finally let loose.”
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
