If we've said it once, we've said it 100 times: 2016 has been awful in regards to celebrity deaths. A ton of fantastic on screen talent passed away this year, ranging from legends like Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder to young talent like Star Trek's Anton Yelchin. The latest celebrity death sits somewhere in the middle, as an actor with a serious cult following has died. Ron Glass, known to many as Shepherd Book in Joss Whedon's Firefly has died at the age of 71.
This news comes to us from Variety, which seems to be one of the first outlets to receive the news from Ron Glass' press rep. Unfortunately, Glass' passing is about all that is known at the moment. Details regarding a cause of death and location have remained private for the time being, presumably out of respect for his loved ones.
Ron Glass is perhaps best known to audiences as Shepherd Derrial Book in the short lived cult TV series Firefly. Shepherds are the Pastors of the futuristic Firefly universe, so Glass provided a code of ethics and morality into the sci-fi property. Both the series itself and the character Book was created by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and MCU director Joss Whedon, and therefore has a pretty serious cult following.
Firefly is known for being one of the most popular short lived television shows of all time. The space western aired its first season on Fox in 2002, but was quickly cancelled. The series, and Ron Glass' character Book, were reprised later in the 2005 film Serenity- serving as a sequel to the television series.
In addition to his work on Firefly and Serenity, Ron Glass is known for his work on 70's sitcom Barney Miller. He played Sergeant Nathan Harris in the cop show for a whopping 164 episodes, serving as one of the show's main stars.
Members of the Hollywood community have already taken to social media to mourn their colleague and friend. Firefly fans will be glad to know that Brown Coats everywhere have voiced their sorrow for Ron Glass' passing, including Castle star Nathan Fillion.
Alan Tudyk (who is no doubt somewhere promoting his role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at this very moment) used his Twitter for a series of tweets about Ron Glass. Check them out below.
Once again, a very touching and personal reaction to Ron Glass' passing.
While the loss of Ron Glass is sure to affect both his loved ones and fans, they can take solace in knowing how many people he touched through this work. Our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.
