Ron Thompson, the infamous actor who starred on Broadway for Charles Gordone within the Pulitzer Prize-winning film There isn’t any place where you may be someone and played father and son musicians for Ralph Bakshi within the animated cult classic American pop, died. He was 83 years old.
– said director Joe Black Hollywood reporter that he found Thompson at his Van Nuys apartment on Saturday afternoon. The two collaborated on eight feature movies, including: I hate horses (2017), Chickens, man (2018) i Suffrage (2023), and Black visited him several times every week to assist him.
“For a man his age, he was full of life, he had an amazing presence,” Black said. He called Thompson “the Sam Jackson to my Tarantino.”
In 1969, Thompson created the off-Broadway role of Shanta Mulligan in a play produced by (*83*) Papp There isn’t any place where you may be someonestarring Ron O’Neal, after which accompanied the drama to Broadway and on a national tour.
In his review for New York TimesMel Gussow he wrote that Thompson, then again, was “great” as “the hippie-talking, drum-playing white Uncle Tom who desperately wants to be black.”
Robert Hooks, co-founder of the Negro Ensemble Company, who knew Thompson from his days as a New York actor, said THR that his good friend “stole this art from everyone.” He said that after watching, he felt the necessity to go backstage to fulfill Thompson There isn’t any place where you may be someone for the primary time.
“It may seem strange, but Ronnie Thompson is the only white actor I know who deserves to be included in the history of Black Theater” – Hooks he wrote on Facebook. “I have never seen a white actor unafraid to go to emotionally naked places that expose the delusions of white jungle fever and turn them into heartbreaking pathos and high art.”
IN American pop (1981) Thompson played the 2 primary characters, Tony Belinsky and his son Pete. He and the opposite actors were filmed for animators, who then created them into cartoon characters through a process called Rotoscoping, much like motion capture today.
“The live animators were still working. They enlarged the photograph, then traced the actor, their physical appearance, movements, expressions, everything, and then drew the background.” – Thompson he reminded in 2012. “It’s not just the actor’s voice, you can see his physical resemblance and overall performance, facial expression, everything!”
Born on January 31, 1941 in Louisville, Kentucky, Phillip Thompson moved to Miami together with his family in 1945. He was inspired to turn into an actor after seeing Marlon Brando within the film On the water frontappeared as an additional on Jerry Lewis Bellboy (1960), moved to New York on the age of 19 and appeared in episodes of the CBS series Armstrong Circle Theater in 1962
He also recorded singles under the supervision of rockabilly artist Ersel Hickey (“Bluebirds Over the Mountain”) and played the role of a rock singer in Brown eye, evil eye (1968).
After There’s no place where you may be someone Thompson appeared on stage alongside Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss and Gloria Grahame in a 1972 revival of William Saroyan’s work The time of your life In Los Angeles.
A yr later, he received an LA Critics Circle Award for his portrayal of Bickham in Does the tiger wear a tie? (A young Al Pacino won a Tony Award for this role in 1969.)
Thompson also returned in 1975–76 as a rookie undercover cop named Nopke on the ABC crime series Barrettwith Robert Blake within the primary role, in addition to guest appearances in such series as Mannix, Ironside, Amy Prentiss, The streets of San Francisco, Bronchi, Quincy, J.A, The Waltons AND Cagney and Lacey.
Contains his film biography White Buffalo (1977), American self (1992) i Deep cover (1992).
Thompson was involved with the late actress Diane Sommerfield (Days of our lives, The Black Godfather) In the seventies. There aren’t any known survivors.
Credit : www.hollywoodreporter.com
