Ron Faber dies: actor who delivered bad news in ‘The Exorcist’ turns 90

Ron Faber, an Obie-winning stage actor whose greatest fame came from a brief but pivotal scene in the 1973 horror classic The exorcistHe died of lung cancer on March 26. He was 90.

His death was only recently announced. In a Facebook post, Faber’s longtime friend and colleague, actor David Patrick Kelly, remembered him as a “great artist and gentleman with a beautiful voice and a laugh.”

Faber had just won an Obie Award for his performance in the 1972 play Off Broadway And they captivate flowers when he was approached by director William Friedkin for the small role of Chuck The exorcist.

In the film, Faber’s Chuck is the assistant director of crash course, the movie within a movie starring Ellen Burstyn’s actor Chris MacNeil. In a pivotal scene, a stunned Chuck arrives at MacNeil’s home in Georgetown to break the news crash course Director Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran) is found dead on the outside steps.

“I assumed you heard it,” he said, realizing his mistake and adding: “You didn’t hear it. Burke is dead, he must have been drunk. He fell down the stairs right outside the door. He broke his neck when he got to M Street. At this point in the film, no one but the possessed Regan (Linda Blair) knows that Burke was gruesomely murdered by the demon.

The small role was not the only contribution Faber would make The exorcist. Although actor Mercedes McCambridge provided the devil’s main voice, Faber added some of the lower, guttural vocals layered into the soundtrack to suggest that there was more than one demon in Regan.

“Friedkin told me there were three people who did the demon’s voice for the film,” Faber recalled in a 2016 interview with the ComingSoon website. “He was determined to make sure the devil didn’t just sound like one person, he wanted it to sound like a legion of voices. So he had Mercedes McCambridge do most of the demon’s voice, and me and someone else, and I never got any credit for that. It was my shock when I saw the film – Mercedes McCambridge got the only credit for the last film, which pissed me off.

Faber said that while McCambridge provided the primary demon voice, he acknowledged some of his contributions in the final cut. “[T]There were things from that take that I was sure would be in the finished film, and they were mostly sounds I made – low, guttural moans and groans. The film’s sound designers played with the voices, including mine, and did the overlay and stuff. Mercedes was the person responsible for all the beeping! She was a famous asthma patient!”

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Faber began his career in the radio industry and later earned a scholarship to the famed Lucille Lortel White Barn Theater in Westport, Connecticut. Subsequent Off-Broadway credits include Happy Tight at Playwright’s Horizons, Troilus and Cressida at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, Woyzeck at the Public Theater and the Mercer Arts Center, And they captivate flowers.

TV credits are included Kojak, The Edge of Night, Law & Order, Third Watch And hope faith

Faber is survived by Mrs. Kathleen Moore Faber; Kinder, Hart, Raymond, Elise Manuel and Anthony; and other extended family. He was predeceased by son Eric.