Theatre, voice actor Richard Ramos dead at 65

Posted:
Nov 6, 2006

Richard Ramos, a member of the voice casts of Marvel Productions' Spider-Man and Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, died last week in Sarasota, Florida. He was 65.

Ramos acted for nearly a decade at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where he was also a director and advisor. He was to open a production of Amadeus next week at the Asolo Theater in Sarasota, and was preparing to open in a staging of Amadeus at the Asolo Theater.

He had a small role in the 1971 movie Klute as an assistant director in a little theatre.

"Because of an actor's sudden illness, [a supporting role] was assumed on short notice by Richard Russell Ramos. Mr. Ramos was so exactingly in character that the script he was carrying seemed more of a prop than an actor's aid," New York Times critic Mel Gussow wrote in a 1981 review of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

"Richard was very generous on stage," recalled Peter Michael Goetz, who shared a dressing room with Ramos at the Guthrie in the 1970s. "It's easy to get rote -- I remember we were together in Of Mice and Men for a year -- and Richard's sense of humor would always revivify the performance," he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Goetz noted Ramos' work in obtaining better working conditions for actors at the theatre.

"Rich worked hard to soften the long hours and so we wouldn't have to rehearse on Thanksgiving, that sort of thing. Even though, at that point, he didn't have anyone who he was going home to."

Peter Moore, an actor and director, remembered the "electricity and honesty in everything he did on stage. He was one of my acting heroes."

"No one lit up a room as did Richard Ramos," said New York actor Brian Murray, who was in Minneapolis for a role in Edgardo Mine at the Guthrie.

In the late 1960s, only a few years after Sir Tyrone Guthrie founded the Guthrie in 1963, Ramos acted at the regional theatre for two seasons. His credits then included The Shoemaker’s Holiday, The Visit, Twelfth Night The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Merton of the Movies and Enrico IV.

Ramos then moved to New York City. However, he returned frequently to Minneapolis to act or direct. He appeared with the Children's Theatre Company and the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.

Between 1977 and 1980, when the Guthrie was looking for a replacement for departing artistic director Alvin Epstein, he served as an artistic advisor.

His late 1970s credits at the Guthrie included roles in Of Mice and Men, Pantagleize, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Design for Living, Endgame, The House of Atreus and Romeo and Juliet.

Ramos directed A Christmas Carol in 1979. His final appearance at the Guthrie came the following year in Camille.

He also acted at the Kennedy Center, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout, the Arena Stage and the Denver Center for the Arts.

His TV appearances included The Monkees, Barney Miller and M*A*S*H.

Richard Ramos is survived by a brother in California. A memorial service in the Twin Cities is planned.