Ron Thompson, a veteran character actor best known for his role in Ralph Bakshi’s rotoscope film American Pop and his 1970s TV series portrayal of Detective Nopke in Baretta, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 83. No cause was given by his friend Professor Rel Dowdell of Hampton University, who confirmed the death.
Thompson had a brief career as a rock singer in the 1960s and wrote and recorded a number of singles as Ronnie Thompson.
He also originated the role of Shanty Mulligan in the Pulitzer Prize winning play No Place to Be Somebody by Charles Gordone. He also won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his 1973 lead performance in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1941, Ron, his older brother, and parents moved to Miami, Florida in ’45. Ron began to show talents as a singer/performer at an early age,...
Thompson had a brief career as a rock singer in the 1960s and wrote and recorded a number of singles as Ronnie Thompson.
He also originated the role of Shanty Mulligan in the Pulitzer Prize winning play No Place to Be Somebody by Charles Gordone. He also won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his 1973 lead performance in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1941, Ron, his older brother, and parents moved to Miami, Florida in ’45. Ron began to show talents as a singer/performer at an early age,...
- 4/14/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Back in 1975, no film was more controversial and created such an intense furor than Ralph Bakshi’s animated adult film Coonskin. On a roll with his previously highly successful and very adult sex and profanity laced animated films Fritz The Cat and Heavy Traffic, Paramount signed him up, and he started working on a new film, originally titled Harlem Nights, for producer Al Ruddy, who at the time was one of the biggest producers in Hollywood, due to the success of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
Coonskin was a mix of live action and animation, starring Barry White and Charles Gordone as two guys who rush to help out a friend, who’s just escaped from prison (Phillip Michael Thomas… remember him?), but are trapped by police in a shootout. While he’s waiting for his friends to get themselves out of their predicament, Thomas is told several stories...
Coonskin was a mix of live action and animation, starring Barry White and Charles Gordone as two guys who rush to help out a friend, who’s just escaped from prison (Phillip Michael Thomas… remember him?), but are trapped by police in a shootout. While he’s waiting for his friends to get themselves out of their predicament, Thomas is told several stories...
- 8/12/2010
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
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