John Vernon
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| John Vernon | |
|---|---|
 Vernon in Dirty Harry, 1971 |
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| Born | Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz February 24, 1932 Zehner, Saskatchewan |
| Died | February 1, 2005 (aged 72) Los Angeles, California |
John Vernon (February 24, 1932 - February 1, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Vernon was born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz in Zehner, Saskatchewan, and was baptised at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic parish in the nearby town of Arat. Some sources list his birthplace as the nearby city of Regina, Saskatchewan. He was one of two sons of Adolf Agopsowicz, a grocer, and his wife Eleonore Krückel (also spelled as Eleanor Kriekle or Kriekel). Both parents' families immigrated to the Edenwold district in the late 19th century from the Austrian crownland and duchy of Bukovina.[citation needed] He was of mixed Polish Armenian, Bohemian German, and Polish origins.[citation needed] Vernon was educated at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before becoming a live stage actor on the early CBC.
[edit] Career
Vernon typically played a stern, authoritarian kind of character. After minor roles on the tv show The Forest Rangers in the early 1960's he rose to prominence in the CBC series Wojeck in the late 1960s, playing a crime-fighting medical examiner (the series has been acknowledged as the inspiration for the later American series Quincy M.E.). He left the series in order to further his acting career in the United States. In 1967 he appeared opposite Lee Marvin in Point Blank. In 1969 he played Cuban revolutionary Rico Parra in Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War era spy movie Topaz. After appearing in a string of television episodes and films, he became well known internationally for playing the by-the-book mayor perpetually frustrated by Clint Eastwood in the first Dirty Harry movie (a role he later parodied in the premiere episode of Sledge Hammer!). He also played the sympathetic Fletcher in Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales. Vernon is probably best remembered for his role as the deadly serious Faber College Dean Vernon Wormer in 1978's enduring cult classic Animal House.
Many of his later roles were as villains, and he played one of the lead roles for the short-lived 1990s series Acapulco H.E.A.T. He also did extensive voice work with the animated film Heavy Metal and on animated series such as The Marvel Superheroes Show in the 1960s, where he played Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner, to Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. His final work was providing the voice of Dean Toadblatt in the TV series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
[edit] Personal life
With his wife Nancy West, John Vernon was the father of actress Kate Vernon and singer Nan Vernon. On February 1, 2005, he died in Los Angeles, California of complications following heart surgery, aged 72.
