John Vernon Canadian Actor
John Vernon Canadian Actor
John Vernon: John Vernon was a prolific stage-trained Canadian character player who made a career out of convincingly playing crafty villains, morally-bankrupt officials and heartless authority figures in American films and television since the 1960s. Vernon was directed by some stellar filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock (Topaz (1969)); George Cukor(Justine (1969)); Don Siegel (Dirty Harry (1971)) and Clint Eastwood (The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)). After training at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and honing his skills in Canadian theatre and television, Vernon made his US film debut in John Boorman’s noir/gangster classic Point Blank (1967) as a trusted friend who betrays Lee Marvin. He again failed to inspire confidence as the ineffectual mayor of San Francisco in Dirty Harry (1971).
Vernon may be best remembered as the sinister Dean Vernon Wormer in John Landis’ National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), a role he reprised for the TV spin-off Delta House (1979). This led to more film comedy roles, a highlight being Mr. Big in the blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).
Dr. John Vernon Trivia
john vernon movies
Nohrin Judge (voice)
Warden Toadblatt
Additional Voices (voice)
Rhombus / Glowing Ghoul (voice)
Vernon Wormer
Rupert Thorne (voice)
Det. Golding
Proconsul Dionysius Kerr (voice)
Old Man
Slim
Academy Communications Officer / Federation Commander 2 (voice)
Tesla Trooper (voice)
Goldander Blackenrock / Baron Ployer (voice)
Principal Scotti
Principal
General Ross
Principal Dinkler
Mr. Fontaine (voice)
Shao Kahn
Doctor Strange
Frank Rampola
Clint Murdock / Max Slater
Detective Pronzini
Admiral
Seamus Calhoun
Capt. Ed McKendrick
Old Mahon
Rupert Thorne (voice)
Dr. Doom
Rupert Thorne
Slade Cantrell
Mr. Smith
V.D. Regan
Boyce
Rex Shard
Narrator
Boudreaux
Hank Bellamy
Dr. Langley Phillips
Dr. Steve Wojeck
Von Bulo
Mr. Chalmers
La Farge
Mr. Ashland
Lieutenant Girvetz
Don Paolo
Vernon john
Vernon played Dean Vernon Wormer of fictional Faber College in Animal House (a role that he would reprise in the short-lived television sequel Delta House). He also played Mr. Prindle in Herbie Goes Bananas, Dr. Stone, Ted Striker’s psychiatrist, in Airplane II: The Sequel, and Sherman Krader in Ernest Goes camping. In 1979, Vernon played villainous American bigot Jonathon Pritts in New Mexico who was trying to steal the land from Mexican landowners in the Louis L’Amour story of The Sacketts.
He also appeared in several cult exploitations and action films in the 1980s, most notably Chained Heat, and Savage Streets, both starring Linda Blair, and Jungle Warriors, opposite Sybil Danning. He made light of his villain image in the 1988 Blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka: a character thinks Vernon should be “above exploitation films” and Vernon replies that lots of famous actors have done exploitation films, listing Jamie Lee Curtis, Angie Dickinson, and Shelley Winters as examples.
Vernon played “Ted Jarrett” in season two The A-Team episode “Labor Pains” (1983). Vernon also played “Cameron Zachary” in the season two Knight Rider episode “A Good Knight’s Work” (1984). Vernon later played “John Bradford Horn” in the season three Airwolf episode “Discovery” (1986). In 1986, he played the Principal in Fuzz Bucket. He played Sergeant Curt Mooney in Killer Klowns from Outer Space and was a leader in the short-lived 1990s series Acapulco H.E.A.T. In Charley Varrick (1973), he played a mafia boss.
Vernon guest-starred as the grouchy principal Dinkler in “Brad to Worse”, an episode of Duckman on USA Network.
John Vernon actor
Vernon made his screen debut in 1956 as the voice of Big Brother in Michael Anderson’s film version of George Orwell’s 1984 starring Edmond O’Brien. He returned to Canada afterward and gained film experience appearing on the TV series Tugboat Annie and The Last of the Mohicans.
He made his Broadway debut in 1964 as DeSoto opposite Christopher Plummer and David Carradine in The Royal Hunt of the Sun. During the Golden Age of CBC Drama in the 1960s, he co-starred in Edna O’Brien’s A Cheap Bunch of Nice Flowers, opposite Colleen Dewhurst, and in Uncle Vanya, opposite William Hutt and Rita Gam. He appeared in the CBC series Wojeck in the late 1960s, playing a crime-fighting medical examiner, but left to further his acting career in the United States.
In 1967, he appeared opposite Lee Marvin in Point Blank. In 1969, he played Cuban revolutionary Rico Parra in Alfred Hitchcock’s Cold War-era spy movie Topaz. He appeared on The High Chaparral as the leader of a group of striking Irish Miners (1969) in “No Irish Need Apply”. In 1970, he guest-starred in the Hawaii Five-O episode “Force Of Waves” as Cal Anderson, and he appeared in the two-part episode “The Banker” of The Silent Force in 1971. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he made four appearances over five years on the TV series Mission: Impossible as four different lead villains. In 1974, Vernon turned in a supporting performance in Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night.
In 1971, he played the by-the-book mayor of San Francisco, perpetually frustrated by Clint Eastwood, in the first Dirty Harry movie. He later parodied this role in the premiere episode of Sledge Hammer! and One More Train to Rob. In 1972 he appeared as a villain in the Fear Is the Key. In 1973 he appeared in Charley Varrick. In 1974 he co-starred in the film The Black Windmill with Michael Caine and Donald Pleasence. Also in 1974, he appeared in The Questor Tapes. In 1975, he starred in Brannigan, alongside John Wayne and Richard Attenborough. In 1976, he played Fletcher in Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales.
