Actor In ‘Baretta’ And Ralph Bakshi’s ‘American Pop’ Was 83

Ron Thompson, a veteran character actor finest recognized for his position in Ralph Bakshi’s rotoscope movie American Pop and his Nineteen Seventies TV sequence portrayal of Detective Nopke in Baretta, died Saturday at age 83 in Los Angeles. No trigger was given by Professor Rel Dowdell of Hampton College, who confirmed the loss of life.

Thompson had a quick profession as a rock singer within the Nineteen Sixties and wrote and recorded a lot of singles as Ronnie Thompson.

He additionally originated the position of Shanty Mulligan within the Pulitzer Prize profitable play No Place to Be Anyone by Charles Gordone. He additionally received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his 1973 lead efficiency within the play Does a Tiger Put on a Necktie?

Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1941, Ron, his older brother, and oldsters moved to Miami, Florida in ’45. Ron started to indicate abilities as a singer/performer at an early age, which led to him performing in kiddie exhibits. In his early teenagers, he noticed Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. With solely $200, he set out for New York.

Two years later, he was appearing reverse Robert Duval on the reside TV drama, Armstrong Circle Theater. On the identical time, he had begun a singing profession and had a document out. Over the following two years, he had two information launched, however neither have been hits.

In ’72, he joined the solid of the Henry Fonda revival, The Time of Your Life. By then, he had moved to L.A.

Within the subsequent 25 years, he might be seen guesting on quite a few tv exhibits.

“Mr. Ron Thompson was a really versatile and proficient character actor in all genres,” stated Professor Dowdell, director of movie research at Hampton College, “in addition to a real and diligent scholar of the great craft of appearing and all of its nuances. He was a really congenial man with a heat and giving spirit, and was well-respected by many luminaries within the movie and tv industries.”

Thompson was married to actress Diane Sommerfield, who died in 2001.