The Exorcist star dies
Ron Faber, who was best known from a brief but crucial scene in 'The Exorcist', has died at the age of 90.
Ron Faber has died.
The Obie Award-winning stage actor - who was best known for a brief but vital role in 'The Exorcist' - passed away from lung cancer at the age of 90 on March 26, Deadline reports.
Although he died a month ago, Ron's death has only just been announced and his friend and colleague David Patrick Kelly remembered him on Facebook as a “great artist and gentleman with a wonderful voice and laugh.”
Ron had won an Obie Award for his 1972 performance in 'And They Put Handcuffs on Flowers', an off-Broadway show, when he was spotted by director William Friedkin and offered the role of Chuck in the 1973 horror classic.
Chuck is the assistant director of 'Crash Course', the movie-within-a-movie in which Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) stars, and he most memorably has a scene where he informs the actress that the film's director, Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran) has been found dead.
In addition, Ron also added some of the deeper, guttural vocal sounds that were layered into Mercedes McCambridge's recordings as the voice of the demon in order to suggest there was more than one presence inside Regan (Linda Blair).
The actor previously admitted he was annoyed that this contribution to the movie went unknown.
He told ComingSoon in 2016: “Friedkin told me that there were three people doing the voice of the demon for the film.
“He was determined to make sure that the devil did not sound like just one person, he wanted it to sound like a legion of voices.
"So he had Mercedes McCambridge do the core part of the voice of the demon, and myself and someone else, and I never got any credit for it. That was my shock when I saw the movie – Mercedes McCambridge got the sole credit on the end film, so that p***** me off...
“There were things from that recording that I was certain made it into the final film, and these were mostly sounds that I made – deep guttural moaning and groaning. The sound design people on the film played with the voices, mine included, and did the overlapping and so forth. Mercedes was the person responsible for all the wheezing! She was a well known asthmatic!”
Ron - whose other credits include roles in 'Kojak', 'The Edge of Night', 'Law and Order' and 'Third Watch' - is survived by his wife, Kathleen Moore Faber, and children Hart, Raymond, Elise Manuel, and Anthony. Another son, Eric, died before his father.
