John Beasley, The ‘Everwood’ And ‘The Soul Man’ Actor, Dies At 79

John Beasley, who is known primarily for his roles on the family drama Everwood and the sitcom The Soul Man, died Tuesday at the age of 79. No cause of death was given.

“Man…you know this is a part of life…but that doesn’t make it any easier. I lost my best friend today,” wrote Beasley’s son Mike in a Facebook post. “They say you shouldn’t ever meet your heroes because they don’t turn out to be who you thought they were. That is so wrong. My hero was my father. Thank you for everything. I hope I made you proud. Love you more.”

Born on June 26, 1943 in Omaha, Nebraska, Beasley did not make his debut as an actor until his mid-40s after a prior career with the Union Pacific Railroad. His first acting credits were in films like Rapid Fire (1989), V.I. Warshawski (1991), The Mighty Ducks (1992), Rudy (1993), Untamed Heart (1993) and Little Big League (1994). He made his debut on television in four episodes of the 1990 drama Brewster Place opposite Oprah Winfrey, and segued as a guest star in TV dramas like the remake of The Untouchables, Missing Persons, EZ Streets, Early Edition, The Pretender and Millennium.

Prior to debuting as Irv Harper on Everwood in 2002, which aired for four seasons, Beasley appeared as a guest star in two episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and three episodes of Judging Amy, among many other series. He credited the 1997 film The Apostle opposite Robert Duvall as his “big break”, and his other film credits included The General’s Daughter (1999), Crazy in Alabama (1999), The Sum of All Fears (2002), I’ll See You in My Dreams (2015), The Turkey Bowl (2019), Cowboys (2020), Spell (2020) and Firestarter (2022).

The Soul Man, his second regularly scheduled TV series, marked his foray into the sitcom world. It starred Cedric the Entertainer and ran for five seasons, from 2012 to 2016.

In the early 2000s, Beasley started the John Beasley Theater & Workshop in Omaha, Nebraska.

Recently, he appeared in the first episode of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian., and was currently starring in a Chicago Shakespeare Theater adaptation of The Notebook.

Beasley is survived by his wife of 58 years, Judy, sons Mike and Tyrone, daughter-in-law Katie, and grandchildren Evan, Miles, Olivia, Mika, Darius, and NBA player Malik Beasley.