This morning it was made public that television and film star Ron Glass passed away, age 71, due to respiratory failure.
The Indiana born performer received accolades early in his career, completely a double major in Drama and Literature from the University of Evansville, who later honoured him with the Medal of Honor. Glass acted on stage during his college years and moved to Hollywood soon after, landing a minor role in Sanford and Son. The next couple of years saw number of roles grow until in 1975 where he picked up his first major job as Det. Ron Harris in Barney Miller. Glass played this role in more than 150 episodes.
Ron Glass became known to modern geek audience as a member of the impressive ensemble cast of Joss Whedon's Firefly and the follow up film Serenity. In spite of only lasting a half season the show quickly attainted cult status and has an impassioned following more than a decade later. This is largely in part to the perfect cast of actors and their work with the characters. Glass played Shepard Book, a missionary who provides the outlaws with spiritual guidance and, on occasion, dry comic relief. The mystery surrounding this character's past gave him an extra layer that the show never got the chance to explore.
Following Firefly Glass filled out his resume with roles on Agents of SHIELD, CSI and others.
Glass was a mainstay at pop culture conventions around the world, where he was always well received by fans. Rest in Peace, Ron Glass.
