John Vernon, the tall, silky-voiced character actor who spent the last 35 years playing smooth villains in film and TV, yet will forever be associated with comedy for his turn as Dean Wormer in John Landis' classic frat comedy National Lampoon's Animal House, died on February 1, at his Van Nuys, California home of heart failure. He was 72.

He was born Adolphus Vernon Agopsowicz on February 24, 1932 in Regina, Saskatchewan. After developing a strong interest in theater while still in his teens, Vernon studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada before eventually attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. While residing in England he did repertory work and supplied the voice of Big Brother in the film version of the George Orwell classic 1984 (1956).

He returned to Canada in the mid-60s and found work on the Canadian stage and television. he landed the starring role in the popular Canadian series Wojeck (1966-68) in which he played a crusading coroner. With his strong physical presence and commanding voice, Vernon soon attracted the attention of Hollywood, and made his American film debut in John Boorman's stylish thriller Point Blank (1967) as a police informant killed by Lee Marvin.

From there, Vernon found work as a smooth as velvet bad guy in a string of hit films: Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz 1969, Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (1971) and Charley Varrick (1973), and Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Yet as well suited as he was for villainous roles, his dead-on, straightfaced performance as the long suffering Dean Wormer, who failed at every turn to take down the members of Delta House in National Lampoon's Animal House was a gem of a comic performance that turned his career around. From there he found work in a series of comedies in the '80s: Airplane II (1982), Fraternity Vacation (1985), the cultish horror-comedy Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1987), and the popular Keenon Ivoey Wayans parody I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).

In recent years, Vernon scaled back his appearances in film and television, but his ripe baratone was in demand for many popular Saturday morning animated shows: Pinky and the Brain, The Incredible Hulk, and Star Trek: Klingon Academy. He is survived by his daughters, Kate and Nan; a son, Chris; stepsons Jim and Grant West; a granddaughter; and his brother, Ernest Christopher.

by Michael T. Toole