John Vernon
John Vernon (February 24, 1932 - February 1, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He was born in rural Saskatchewan and made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada.
Vernon was born in Zehner, Saskatchewan, and baptised at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic parish in the nearby town of Arat, as Adolphus Raimundus Vernon Agopsowicz. Some sources list his birthplace as the nearby city of Regina.
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. He was of mixed Polish Armenian, Bohemian German, and Polish origins.
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.
Vernon typically played a stern, authoritarian kind of character. He first 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 sting 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!). Another well-known role was as the deadly serious and stereotypical Dean Wormer in 1978's 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 on animated series such as The Marvel Superheroes Show in the 1960s 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.
With his wife Nancy West, John Vernon was the father of actress Kate Vernon and singer Nan Vernon.
He died in Los Angeles, California of complications following heart surgery, aged 72.