Veteran actor Peter Jason, best known for his role as Con Stapleton in the HBO Western series Deadwood, has died at age 80.
At this time, a cause of death for the NCIS star has not yet been revealed.
His death was confirmed by his colleagues, including Halloween director, John Carpenter, who described him as ‘one of the great character actors in cinema.’
‘He was a dear friend and I’ll miss him terribly,’ Carpenter wrote on X.
On Thursday, Billy Zane, who starred alongside Jason in the 2008 film The Man Who Came Back, shared a heartfelt tribute paying homage to Jason.
‘If there are no words then there certainly is no music.. My dear, dear friend, the brightest light, most generous soul and gregarious of men, the supremely talented and kind Peter Jason has left the set,’ he wrote.
Veteran actor Peter Jason, best known for his role as Con Stapleton in the HBO western drama Deadwood, has died at age 80; seen in 2019
Zane continued: ‘Survived by his lovely wife Eileen and his children, the vacuum felt by his passing gut punched me as I saw it coming. It had me spending the last two hours deciding between pieces of music to underscore this tribute that would either confuse, tickle or bore 1/2 of the viewers. They ranged from Spike Jones to Morricone. I couldn’t pick one so I chose none.’
‘All I know is his wake will be widely attended by and teeter somewhere between a Friar’s Roast to a burial at sea befitting an admiral, See you on the back 9 my friend!’ he concluded.
Matthew Asner, son of the late actor Ed Asner, took to Facebook to write that he was ‘heartbroken’ over the news.
‘My dear friend and my father’s best friend, Peter Jason, passed away today. What a loss He was truly one of the sweetest people on the planet. My heart goes out to his wife and daughter. Peter, I hope you and my dad are up there laughing your a**es off,’ he wrote in his post.
Over his prolific career, Jason earned more than 260 film and TV credits.
Between 2004 to 2006, he starred in 26 episodes of Deadwood. In 2019, he reprised his role as Con Stapleton for the 2019 film, Deadwood: The Movie.
His first credited role was as an unnamed duty officer in the 1967 TV movie A Bell for Adano.
He went on to appear in Here Come the Brides, Gunsmoke, Rio Lobo and The Blue and the Gray.
At this time, a cause of death for the NCIS star has not yet been revealed; seen in 2004
His death was confirmed by his colleagues, including Halloween director, John Carpenter, who described him as ‘one of the great character actors in cinema’ (seen in 2018)
In the 1980s, he played a soccer coach in kung fu classic, The Karate Kid, and had two roles in the television show Remington Steele.
He also starred in the horror-slasher flick Trick or Treats, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness.
Jason also had memorable cameos on two episodes of NCIS as Robert King, a former Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps, and appearances in Desperate Housewives and Arrested Development.
He also lent his voice to the video games Gears of War 2 and Fallout 2 and appeared in the music video for Meat Loaf’s Bat of Hell II.
Although Jason was born in Hollywood, he grew up in Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach.
As a child, he attended Newport Beach Elementary School, Horace Ensign Junior High and Newport Harbor High School.
He went on to graduate from Orange Coast College and studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University.
Jason was married to wife Eileen Jason from 1979 until his death.
During their marriage, they welcomed their daughter Robin Goldwasser, a playwright and wife of John Flansburgh.