Ace Ventura Actors You May Not Know Passed Away
The "Ace Ventura" franchise launched Jim Carrey into the mainstream and helped make him a household name. The first film, "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," debuted in 1994 and followed the titular character on a wild investigation to hunt down the person who kidnapped the Miami Dolphins' mascot. The following year, "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" sent Ace on an adventure to the fictional African nation of Nibia.
If you haven't watched the "Ace Ventura" movies in the past couple of decades, you might just remember their quirky humor and Carrey's outlandish performance. A modern viewing of the films reveals a much darker history, though. The racist and misogynistic humor of "Ace Ventura" hasn't aged well, but the movies are still a repository of some of the greatest character actors of the '90s. Seemingly every tiny role is played by one of "those people" that you just know you recognize from somewhere — though once "Ace Ventura" jogs your memory, you might be better off watching these excellent actors in other films instead.
It's been 30 years since the franchise debuted, and plenty has changed. Some members of the cast of "Ace Ventura" are busy making new movies and shows, but sadly, more than a handful of them have passed away. The movies are chock full of great character actors at the tail ends of their careers, and even though the movies themselves are occasionally problematic, these actors are absolutely worth celebrating.
Alice Drummond
Alice Drummond is one of those character actors that you definitely recognize but might not remember exactly where you've seen her. Before she started popping up in all kinds of shows and movies, she was a Broadway actress famous for plays like "You Can't Take It With You." Today classic TV fans remember her as Nurse Jackson on "Dark Shadows," but most people know her as the terrified librarian at the beginning of "Ghostbusters." Even after she moved into film and TV, Drummond kept working on the stage to much acclaim, and in 1970 she earned a Tony nomination for her performance in "The Chinese" by Murray Schisgal.
In "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," Drummond had a small but important role as Mrs. Finkle. Her character was the mother of Ray Finkle/Einhorn (Sean Young), and shortly after speaking to her, Ace starts putting together the clues that lead to him nabbing Finkle. After "Ace Ventura," Drummond continued acting for another 16 years. In that time she picked up guest appearances on shows like "Friends" and "Boston Legal," but she didn't shy away from dramas, such as the film "Doubt." Her final role came in the 2010 film "Furry Vengeance," starring Brendan Fraser and Brooke Shields. She was 88 years old when she died in 2016 from medical complications after a fall.
Don Shula
There was at least one actor in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" who didn't need to work that hard to get into character. In the movie, Don Shula plays the coach of the Miami Dolphins, a job he had actually just retired from two years earlier.
Shula was born in 1930, and he had an incredibly prolific football career. He played college football in Cleveland at John Carroll University before going on to play for the Cleveland Browns. Several years into his career, he was traded to the Baltimore Colts and played with them for multiple seasons before moving to the Washington Redskins. With years of on-field experience, it was almost inevitable that Shula would find his way to coaching, and when he was just 33 years old he became coach for the Colts. Shula started coaching the Miami Dolphins in 1970 and continued leading them to victory after victory until 1992. Today he's still one of only two NFL coaches with more than 300 wins on their record.
Shula only took one other acting role in an episode of HBO's "Ballers" in 2015. He died at his home at the age of 90 in 2020. After his death, Dan Marino, a Miami Dolphins player and fellow "Ace Ventura" alum, made a post saying, "Coach Shula — you will truly be missed! You embody the definition of 'greatness.'"
Mark Margolis
"Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" had a surprising number of renowned character actors in its cast, but Mark Margolis stands out from the crowded field. Margolis's career began in earnest in the 1970s, and he quickly took a liking to crime movies such as "Going in Style." His best-known role from the early part of his career is Shadow in 1983's "Scarface." In the years leading up to "Ace Ventura," Margolis started branching out and picked up guest appearances on sci-fi shows like "Star Trek: Next Generation" and "Quantum Leap."
Like many other actors on this list, Margolis only had a bit part in "Ace Ventura." He played Ace's landlord Shickadance — a role that he didn't reprise in the sequel. "Ace Ventura" introduced Margolis to a new generation of fans, and over the following decades, they had plenty of opportunities to see him again. Over the course of his career, Margolis played a stunning 162 different roles. In recent years he had some of his biggest TV parts in shows like "Breaking Bad" – which earned him an Emmy nomination – as well as "Better Call Saul" and "American Horror Story."
Margolis died in August 2023 in New York City after being hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. He was 83 years old at the time. In the wake of his death, his surviving family, which included his son and wife, asked that people make donations to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Noble Willingham
Noble Willingham is another character actor with a mind-boggling number of credits to his name. In a career that spanned just over 30 years, Willingham played 131 different roles in a wide variety of movies and TV shows. Willingham's first-ever role was in the 1970 TV movie "My Sweet Charlie," which won three Emmys. After that auspicious start, Willingham seemingly grabbed every role he could, effortlessly moving from tongue-in-cheek crime films like "Big Bad Mama" to tense sci-fi stories like "Where Have All the People Gone."
Like Mark Margolis, Willingham also found himself on the sets of "Star Trek: Next Generation" and "Quantum Leap." Though he shone in comedic films like "Born in East L.A." and, of course, "Ace Ventura," Willingham didn't shy away from dramatic roles at all. He played The Boss in an adaptation of "Of Mice and Men," and he made a memorable appearance in the somber biopic "La Bamba."
In "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," Willingham played the prickly owner of the Miami Dolphins. The role came as a brief break from his 155-episode run in "Walker, Texas Ranger." Both parts came near the tail end of Willingham's career. He died of natural causes in January 2004 at age 72.
Frank Adonis
Frank Adonis's character Vinnie is one of the minor antagonists in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective." Vinnie works with his partner Roc on behalf of Ray Finkle, and the two of them help Finkle kidnap Snowflake and Marino. Ace encounters them on a couple of occasions, but he usually moves right past them in pursuit of the real villain of the story. Though we don't explicitly learn what happens to Vinnie and Roc at the end of the movie, it's safe to say that they got arrested alongside Finkle.
Adonis's acting career started in 1971 with an uncredited role in "The French Connection." The '80s were a great decade for Adonis as an actor. He appeared in the Jake LaMotta biopic "Raging Bull" in 1980 and landed a role in Oliver Stone's 1987 movie "Wall Street." Arguably the biggest role of Adonis's career came just a few years before "Ace Ventura," when he played Anthony Stabile in 1990's "Goodfellas" — his second time working with director Martin Scorsese.
Adonis died in 2018. His wife told TMZ, "He helped all his friends he could. Great writer, director and actor. He was my best friend." At that point, Adonis had been on dialysis, and he spent nine days on a ventilator before he passed. He was 83 years old.
Tiny Ron Taylor
In "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," Tiny Ron Taylor played the other half of the Vinnie/Roc duo. Like Frank Adonis's Vinnie, Taylor's character was more henchman than villain, and when Ray Finkle's Miami Dolphins scheme eventually fell apart, Roc took the fall as well.
Long before Taylor became an actor, he was a basketball player. At seven feet tall, Taylor struck an imposing image on the court, and he knew that was to his advantage. "I didn't run that well, but I was a big-boned ballplayer," Taylor once told the LA Times. He played for UCLA before moving on to the Lakers and eventually the Milwaukee Bucks.
Taylor's acting career began in the early 1980s with an uncredited role in "Police Squad!" He was still playing basketball when, six years later, he reprised his TV role in the movie "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" The following year he landed one of his most memorable roles as Mountain in "Road House" just as his basketball career was coming to an end. Taylor continued acting for 20 years after his appearance in "Ace Ventura." In 2016 he stepped away from acting after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, and three years later he died at the age of 72.
David Margulies
David Margulies had just a tiny role in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" as a doctor, but most fans know him from his earlier work. Marguiles played the mayor of New York City in the "Ghostbusters" franchise, although his acting career began long before those movies ever made their way to the big screen. Margulies got his start on the stage, starring in off-Broadway productions in the 1960s when he was still in his 20s. In 1973 he finally landed on Broadway in a production of "The Iceman Cometh," and not long after that, he started making regular appearances in movies and TV shows.
Though Margulies's best-known roles are in comedies, he was equally adept at tackling dramas. He made a number of guest appearances in shows like "The Sopranos," "Law & Order," and "Blue Bloods." He may have been more focused on movies and TV in his later years, but Marguiles never gave up his love of the theater and kept acting on stage throughout his entire life. He even wrote his own shows, and his play "Time Stands Still" debuted in 2009.
Marguiles died in 2016 at the age of 78. Fans took to Reddit to mourn his death, and Margulies's grandson jumped into a thread to answer questions and memorialize his grandfather. He wrote, "He loved doing what he did and did it right up until he physically couldn't anymore."
Judy Clayton
Judy Clayton was actually the stage name of Carolyn Freveletti. When Clayton was getting started as a performer in the 1960s, she wasn't immediately drawn to acting. Instead, she spent decades working as a jazz singer in Chicago nightclubs, building her repertoire before eventually taking the plunge into a whole new kind of performance.
Clayton's first acting role came in the 1989 TV movie "Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer." After that, Clayton got herself involved in an early superhero scene. From 1989 to 1992, she made occasional appearances in the "Superboy" show before moving on to "Swamp Thing" from 1990 to 1993. After that stint in the DC universe, Clayton joined the cast of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" as Martha Metz. She ended up working with Jim Carrey again four years later when she played a travel agent in "The Truman Show."
Clayton's last acting credit was in the 2010 movie "Promises." Just two years later she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and in 2015 she died of complications at the age of 78. Clayton left behind three sons and a daughter, Jamie Freveletti, who is an accomplished novelist.
Bill Zuckert
"Prolific" doesn't even begin to cover Bill Zuckert's acting career. He started making guest appearances on TV shows in the early 1950s and kept that up for the rest of his life. Though he occasionally had larger roles and starred in a movie every so often, Zuckert mostly flexed his character actor muscles by bouncing from show to show for more than 40 years. When all was said and done, he'd portrayed well over 200 characters throughout his life.
That's just Zuckert's on-screen work. His career began even earlier, when he was still in the Navy during World War II. Zuckert started out acting on the radio and spent a good two decades lending his vocal talents to a huge assortment of different programs. Only after establishing his radio career did Zuckert make a successful jump to acting in front of the camera.
Zuckert was 79 years old when he appeared in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective." He played Mr. Finkle, the husband of Alice Drummond's character and father of the movie's main antagonist. The movie was Zuckert's second-to-last film role. He also starred in 1994's "Naked Gun 33 ⅓: The Final Insult." After that, Zuckert spent a couple more years making appearances on TV shows until he died of pneumonia in January 1997.
Sam Phillips
A native of South Africa, Sam Phillips was a renowned theater actor whose work influenced other artists and inspired real cultural change. He began his theater career in his early 20s, and not long after that he joined the Non-racial Peoples Space Theatre and became a cast member in South Africa's first multi-racial production of the Greek classic "Lysistrata."
"Ace Ventura" fans know Phillips as the Wachootoo Chief in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," but that role only represents a tiny sliver of his work. As it happens, "When Nature Calls" was only the second feature-length role for the 47-year-old actor, but he quickly dove into many more. Over the next two and half decades, Phillips starred in half a dozen more movies and kept up a steady stream of guest appearances on TV. All the while, he kept up his passion for working in theater.
Phillips died in January 2021 at 72 years old. The Gaenor Artiste Management, which worked with him throughout much of his career, released a statement in the wake of his death saying, "We will remember him fondly for his smile and miss his visits to the office over a cup of tea and a story of the good old times."
Danny D. Daniels
Danny D. Daniels was a Guyanese actor whose career started all the way back in the 1950s. Daniels's first feature-length role was in "Storm Over Jamaica," but like many first-time actors, Daniels went uncredited for the part. He spent the next several years of his career making guest appearances in TV shows like "No Hiding Place" and "Knight Errant Unlimited" before landing his next movie role in 1964's "Woman of Straw."
Throughout his entire career, and despite constantly working for more than thirty years, Daniels remained a side player and quiet character actor. The year before he joined the cast of "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," he had an overlap with former "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" actor Bill Zuckert on the set of "Naked Gun 33 ⅓: The Final Insult." In "When Nature Calls," Daniels played a witch doctor residing in Chief Wachootoo's tribe, and that role ended up being his last Hollywood venture. 15 years later, Daniels died on December 6, 2010, of lung cancer at the age of 83.