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Ron Glass, Firefly's Shepherd Book, Has Died (hollywoodreporter.com)
Slashdot reader tiqui tells us that Emmy-nominated actor Ron Glass has died.
The actor was 71 and the family has not released more details of his death, but Firefly/Serenity fans can follow this link to the Hollywood Reporter for more information.
Firefly creator Joss Whedon posted on Twitter that Glass "got there with grace, humor and enormous heart. He was, among so many other things, my Shepherd. Raise, appropriately, a glass. Rest, Ron." And Nathan Fillion, who played Captain Reynolds on Firefly, posted an appropriate quote on Instagram. ("Shepard, don't move." "Won't go far...")
The actor's Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor came in 1982, for his role on the long-running TV series Barney Miller. Interestingly, one of Glass's co-stars on that show was Abe Vigoda, who also died earlier this year at age 94 -- a full 34 years after his death was mistakenly reported by People magazine.
Firefly creator Joss Whedon posted on Twitter that Glass "got there with grace, humor and enormous heart. He was, among so many other things, my Shepherd. Raise, appropriately, a glass. Rest, Ron." And Nathan Fillion, who played Captain Reynolds on Firefly, posted an appropriate quote on Instagram. ("Shepard, don't move." "Won't go far...")
The actor's Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor came in 1982, for his role on the long-running TV series Barney Miller. Interestingly, one of Glass's co-stars on that show was Abe Vigoda, who also died earlier this year at age 94 -- a full 34 years after his death was mistakenly reported by People magazine.
With the combo of his voice and dialog delivery Ron Glass was as unique an actor as any who have received much more recognition. A truly great actor. ...gonna miss ya, fella
Now they're never going to renew Firefly.
Fine, I give up. You win Fox, you win!
I hope you're happy with yourselves.
The special hell.
Actually, I think his deleted monologue from Serenity best describes Book's character:
I'd like to choose a quote that best describes Ron personally, but I don't know what he was really like. Jewel's comments were really touching, though.
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
More to the point, there's no point in the timeline where he would need to be included.
* In any prequel, they wouldn't have met him yet
* In anything after Serenity, he's dead
* If they do an in-between, he's reported to have left the ship at the same time as Inara (if I remember correctly), which was right after the series ended. So that event just needs to happen off-camera. We know that Serenity visited him several times, but they don't have to cover any of those visits.
To me, it seems that the biggest problem with resuming it now is that all of the actors are aging. It sort of puts a limit on when you can fit them into the timeline, especially if you want to do a prequel. I know recasting is the standard approach to that, but I doubt they could come close to the original cast. I mean, can anyone seriously picture anyone other than Nathan Fillion as Mal?
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.