John Beasley, a character actor who gained fame after his role as an assistant coach in the 1993 film Rudy, has died at the age of 79, his family confirmed. Beasley passed away at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday, his son told The Hollywood Reporter. He had reportedly been undergoing liver tests before his health suddenly deteriorated. Beasley had a slew of acting credits under his belt from the 1990s, including The Mighty Ducks and The Apostle, among many others. More recently, he featured in the WB drama Everwood and TV Land’s The Soul Man, and was set to head to Broadway in August for the musical adaptation of The Notebook. “They say you shouldn’t ever meet your heroes because they don’t turn out to be who you thought they were. That is so wrong. My hero was my father,” Beasley’s son, Michael, wrote in a tribute to him on social media.
