Robert Swan Dies: ‘Hoosiers’ & ‘The Babe’ Actor Was 78
Veteran actor Robert Swan, known for his roles in the sports movies Hoosiers, Rudy, and The Babe, as well as TV roles in All My Children and The Equalizer, has died. He was 78.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Swan passed away on Wednesday, August 9, at his home in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, after a long battle with cancer.
Born on October 20, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, Swan started his acting career performing in local theaters before making his Broadway debut in 1974 in The Freedom of the City. His first film role came in 1980 in the romantic fantasy drama Somewhere in Time, which starred Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer.
He is perhaps best known for his key roles in several notable sports movies, including David Anspaugh’s basketball film Hoosiers (1986), where he played Rollin Butcher, an assistant to Gene Hackman‘s Coach Dale. Swan reunited with Anspaugh in 1993’s Rudy, the biographical football flick about Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger.
Swan also played the father of New York Yankees legendary slugger George Herman “Babe” Ruth in Arthur Hiller’s The Babe (1992).
On television, Swan portrayed the villain Jeb Tidwell on the ABC soap opera All My Children and Dan Manaher in the police procedural Missing Persons. He also had parts in Spenser: for Hire and The Equalizer, and a role alongside Jane Fonda in the 1984 made-for-TV movie The Dollmaker.
His other film credits include Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Ron Howard’s Backdraft (1991), and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994). Swan’s final on-screen came in the 2012 film The Owner.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; brothers David and Charles; sister-in-law Elizabeth; nephews Christopher, Bryan, and Daniel; and dogs Baci and Chico.
A celebration of life will be held at a future date where actors will perform a reading of a screenplay Swan had written about dictionary publisher Samuel Johnson. Hill Street Blues star Daniel J. Travanti and The Untouchables actor Si Osborne are set to take part in the reading.
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