Ronald L. Schwary Death | Passed Away | Obituary
Ronald Schwary Death – Dead: A great loss was made known to InsideEko. As friends and families of the deceased are mourning the passing of their loved and cherished Ronald Schwary.
Having heard about this great loss, the family of this individual is passing through pains, mourning the unexpected passing of their beloved.
This departure was confirmed through social media posts made by Twitter users who pour out tributes, and condolences to the family of the deceased.
My heart has been heavy these last few days, but it’s also been enormously full as I mourn the passing of my boss, my mentor and dear friend of 20 years, Ronald L. Schwary. To know Ron is to understand that he went out on his own terms, in the middle of a global pandemic. Ron used to say to me, “Honey, if I die and we’re in the middle of shooting, at least take one moment of silence for me on set before production resumes”. Here’s your moment. The entire industry is shut-down and somehow it just feels right. I can hear the crew chanting now, “Shutdown Schwary”, if only for this one last time. But let’s get back to work soon, ok pal?
Ron loved the entertainment industry and he loved people who loved it too. He was a dreamer. He came to L.A. on a wish and a prayer like the rest of us and he became untouchable. He was the guy you called. The guy you wanted in your corner to champion your vision, to solve your production problems and to make the magic happen. To me, he was the magic. He started his career as a stand-in for Dustin Hoffman. He was an ape in “Planet of the Apes” and yes, he was that guy in the movie “Tootsie”. He was also the producer who won an Oscar for the very first film he ever produced, “Ordinary People”. He was one of the first to get into the DGA trainee program when it started and he was an assistant director, first and foremost, when he walked onto any set. But more than any of that, more than the storied career that spanned decades, more than the unbelievable catalogue of film and TV shows he worked on or produced, Ron Schwary leaves a legacy of influencing and championing the careers of thousands of people in the entertainment industry, including me.
I met Ron when I was 24 years old. I had no idea who he was. I’d taken the train from Philadelphia to New York that day for a job interview. I was anxious, excited and truthfully, a little nauseous as I sat outside an office in Tribeca prepping for my interview. Enter Ron Schwary. In what I’d later learn was a classic Schwary move, he came over to size me up and ask me twenty questions about what I was writing in my notepad. I was polite, but uninterested in small talk. I foolishly assumed he just worked in the building, but soon he was also sitting in on my interview. Little did I know or could I ever imagine the impact he would come to have on my life and career.
They say we are the sum total of our experiences and, for me, so many of those experiences have been alongside Ron. So much time spent together, so many stupid jokes between us, a lifetime of memories. Our friendship really began in NY after the show we were working on was canceled and we were left unemployed post 9/11. We’d meet for breakfast at Wolf’s on 57th or coffee at the Coffee Shop in Union Square. In the early years, I thought his stories working with high-profile celebrities like Robert Redford, Mary Tyler Moore, Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt sounded too outlandish. Could these stories actually be true? It took me a while to comprehend the life and career he’d had before we met. He was humble and accessible and his stories were extraordinary. I remember lifting his Oscar up for the first time and realizing it was heavy and it was real. Let’s just say I was naïve, but by the time he hired me as his assistant on a pilot we shot in North Carolina, I was starting to get the picture. By then, we were already friends. I had no filter with him which was one of the reasons I always felt we worked well together. I wasn’t intimidated or afraid to tell him what I thought. He liked that. He was an open book and a source of information and experience that I loved learning from. I was a sponge around him, and yet I understood, I could never truly know everything he knew.
A year later, I moved to Los Angeles and shortly thereafter I got a call from Ron. “Quit your job honey, we’re coming out to LA to do a pilot”. So I quit my job on a TV series to work with Ron on a pilot called “Medium”.
We were on set from call to wrap together every day for seven seasons of “Medium”. Ron and I shared an office and a trailer. I sat in on every meeting and every interview and he told me to read everything that crossed his desk and ask questions. And I did. Nothing was off the table. He pushed my curiosity. Ron instilled in me the importance of reading a script for enjoyment first. He could break down a script with the best of them, but he knew the story ruled.
Ron was one-of-a-kind. He was a charmer. When he walked onto a set he owned it. Ron won everyone over with his gift for story-telling and jokes and, most of all, because he showed respect to everyone on set equally. He loved the process of production and loved watching the crew in action. He’d watch the grips rig a camera insert car and process trailer with the same awe as if it was the very first time he’d seen it done. He loved people who tested him and fought for their vision whether he agreed with them or not. He loved to give people a shot at proving themselves and promoted many, including me, into leadership positions. Ron loved working. Producing was in his blood, in his DNA and to watch him in action was awe-inspiring. He thrived on the adrenaline of solving a problem. He loved to be the hero. Ron considered himself a bedroom, bathroom and parlour producer, but his skills weren’t limited to that. He knew how to get it all done or who to call to help him pull it off. His gift was his way with people and his ability to put together the best team for the job.
Ron and I never discussed that he was my mentor. He just was. He knew what it was to help others because others had helped him. He loved meeting a young person starting out in the business and saying, “Stay in touch, let me know how your career’s going” and he meant it. Everywhere we went, Ron ran into people he gave a first shot to.
There’s no way I could put into writing all the lessons I learned from Ron. They’re just ingrained in me. They’ve become my DNA, my mottos and I wear them as a badge of honor. He was a guiding influence in my career. He always said, “If you’re not having fun, get out.” He knew the entertainment industry could be grueling, but he believed it should be fun and he always seemed to have the most fun of them all.
Ron was a giant in the industry. He was a force. Ron was a champion for others. If you knew him, if you worked for him, if he championed you in any way, I ask that you do the same for him now. Share the stories. There’s nothing he loved more than a good story. In the end, his own life story is the best of them all.
He had another best picture nominee with ‘A Soldier’s Story’ and led six Sydney Pollack-helmed films, including ‘Absence of Malice’ and ‘Tootsie.’
Ronald L. Schwary, the Oscar-winning producer of ORDINARY PEOPLE who also backed A SOLDIER’S STORY for Norman Jewison, SCENT OF A WOMAN and MEET JOE BLACK for Martin Brest, and six films for Sydney Pollack including TOOTSIE, has died at the age of 76. #RIP
Ronald L. Schwary, the Oscar-winning producer of ORDINARY PEOPLE who also backed A SOLDIER’S STORY for Norman Jewison, SCENT OF A WOMAN and MEET JOE BLACK for Martin Brest, and six films for Sydney Pollack including TOOTSIE, has died at the age of 76. #RIP https://t.co/fQvGmOAiM0
— Chuck #BLM (@charlestrotter) July 9, 2020
We are still working on getting more details about the death, as family statement on the death is yet to be released.