John Beasley, Veteran Actor on 'Everwood' and 'The Soul Man' Dead at 79

Actor John Beasley died Tuesday. He was 79. Among the character actor's most memorable roles were that of Irv Harper, a school bus driver on The WB drama Everwood, as well as Barton Bellentine, the father to Cedric the Entertainer's character, in the TV Land comedy The Soul Man. His son Tyrone Beasley told The Hollywood Reporter that his father died in a hospital in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Beasley had been undergoing tests on his liver before unexpectedly "taking a turn for the worst." Beasley has appeared in a wide range of movies, including Rudy (1993), The Apostle (1997) with Robert Duvall as the retired minister Charles Blackwell, along with many other films such as V.I. Warshawski (1991), The Mighty Ducks (1992), Untamed Heart (1993), Losing Isaiah (1993), Little Big League (1994), Crazy in Alabama (1997), The General's Daughter (1999), The Sum of All Fears (2002), the 2004 remake of Walking Tall, and Firestarter (2022).

His most recent performance was onstage in Chicago, where he appeared in the musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' 1996 novel, The Notebook, which was adapted into a 2004 film starring James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Ryan Gosling, and Rachel McAdams and is currently headed for Broadway. According to his son, Beasley was playing the Garner role in the musical and was set to attend workshops in New York during August as producers arranged a venue for the performance. "To be a working artist is the highest calling, and I appreciate wherever it takes me," he said in an interview last year. "If I never got to Broadway, I would still feel I've had a pretty successful career." He also launched and ran the John Beasley Theater and Workshop in Omaha for 13 years. 

Beasley was born on June 26, 1943, and worked as a railroad man with the Union Pacific Railroad until he began acting at 45. His first on-screen role was as Mr. Willie on the 1990 Oprah Winfrey-starring ABC series Brewster Place. From 2002 to 2006, Beasley played Irv, wife of Debra Mooney's Edna Harper, on Greg Berlanti's Everwood, and from 2012 to 2016, Barton on The Soul Man. Also on his TV resume are guest appearances on Missing Persons, Early Edition, CSI, Judging Amy, Boston Legal, Treme, and The Mandalorian. According to his son Michael's Facebook post, "I lost my best friend today. 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. Thank you for everything." Additionally, he is survived by his wife of 58 years, Judy; daughters-in-law Katie and Deena; and grandchildren Evan, Miles, Olivia, Mika, Darius, and Malik Beasley, an NBA veteran who played for the Los Angeles Lakers last season.