It wasn't that long ago that Ron was grieving over the death of another sweathog, Robert Hegyes, so it really startled me to see that Ron himself had now passed away. Ron suffered the misfortune that a lot of famous actors go through, of becoming so closely associated with a single, quirky role that he couldn't get cast as anything else. He was in a deep depression for a while. Then he moved east and had somewhat better luck getting cast on the live stage. I remember passing through Wilmington, Delaware, in 1992 or so, seeing that he was playing Mozart in "Amadeus" at a local regional theatre. Years later I heard Ron say that that was the production that turned his life around. He got other roles on stage, and also got some regional productions of plays that he wrote. He did some teaching; in fact, it was a teaching gig that had him down in Florida just now. He was a nice guy, always searching. I didn't know him closely, but we met a few times, and he did some small theatre projects with people I know. You know what, though? I think he may have left an extraordinarily durable legacy, because even if his name gets forgotten some generations from now, my guess is that people will still be exclaiming "Ooh! Ooh!" when they know the answer to a questions that's been asked. Rest in peace, Ron.
