John Vernon, 72; Roles as Villain Included Dean in ‘Animal House’
LA Times
John Vernon, a Canadian-born character actor who frequently played villains in films and on television and may be best known as the sinister Dean Wormer in the comedy classic “Animal House,” has died. He was 72.
Vernon, who recently suffered a heart attack, died Tuesday in his sleep at his Van Nuys home, family members said.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts who appeared on stage in Canada and New York in the 1950s and ’60s, Vernon was known for his deep, resonant voice and for what one critic called “a ravaged, Burtonian face.”
Over the last four decades, Vernon amassed more than 200 film and television credits. Among the more memorable:
He played a bounty hunter stalking Clint Eastwood in “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” the mayor of San Francisco in “Dirty Harry,” a vulnerable bad guy in “Point Blank” starring Lee Marvin, and a revolutionary leader in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Topaz.”
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