Ronald Hunter: 1943 - 2013
I
took that photograph of my friend, Ronald Hunter, a few years ago; I
called it Ronnie
Christ
and when he came to our apartment to celebrate his birthday one year,
with a few friends, after dinner I presented him with the framed
photo. I don't know if he ever put it on his wall but it brought a
tear to his eye.
He
died yesterday, in Los Angeles, after being ill for some time; he
fell asleep, as I was told, the way he wanted go. The main thing is
he wasn't in pain and didn't suffer.
I
met Ronnie
Boy,
as I called him, in 1997 when we were both in a play at Santa Monica
Playhouse, California, and we both won an award – so we were 'award
winning actors' – we kind of clicked and swapped stories in a
sports bar on Wilshire Boulevard after each show.
Since
then he has always been a true friend and if we didn't see him for a
few days he would call each day just to see how we were. He would take me out to dinner on my birthday; I had stopped
celebrating it years ago and he would take my wife out on hers too;
since we moved back to London we would always speak on those days.
Ron
was a really good actor; he came to Los Angeles to do a series with
Louis Gosset Jr called The Lazarus Syndrome, he liked the weather so
he stayed. He also worked with Al Pacino on a few occasions on
Broadway, notably in Richard III.
A
few years ago he was very ill, and we thought we had lost him then,
but he recovered and gave a brilliant nuanced performance in a play
called The
Unexpected Man
in Los Angeles barely six months after being at death's door.
But
it was as a human being he will be most missed. He was a friend who
wouldn't let you down and I will miss him – may he rest in peace.
