Robert Swan Dies: ‘Hoosiers’, ‘Rudy’ Actor Was 78
Robert Swan, an actor familiar from sometimes brief but noticeable roles in Hoosiers, Rudy, The Untouchables and The Babe, died of cancer today at his home in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. He was 78.
His death was announced by his friend Betty Hoeffner in a Facebook post.
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Perhaps best known for his role as an assistant to Gene Hackman’s high school basketball coach in director David Anspaugh’s 1986 sports drama Hoosiers, Swan also featured as a priest in Anspaugh’s 1993 Rudy starring Sean Astin.
Making his feature debut portraying a stagehand in 1980’s Somewhere in Time, Swan frequently appeared on both TV and in film over the next two decades, with roles in the 1984 TV-movie The Dollmaker starring Jane Fonda and in series including All My Children, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, Walking Tall, The Twilight Zone and Spencer For Hire.
On the big screen, he portrayed a biker in Doctor Detroit (1983), a fire chief in Grandview, U.S.A. (1984), a Mountie Captain in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), a bartender in Ron Howard’s Backdraft (1991) and detectives in Who’s That Girl (1987) and Mo’ Money (1992).
In 1992, he played the father of Babe Ruth in Arthur Hiller’s The Babe starring John Goodman in the title role.
Swan, a Chicago native who frequently appeared on stage there, played the Balladeer in Brian Friel’s short-lived Broadway play The Freedom of the City (1974).
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