Biography for
Ron Lackmann More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

The son of Minerva and Frederick Lackmann, Ron Lackmann grew up in Queens, New York. While he was attending Hofstra University in the 1950s, he played Bud on the NBC radio soap opera series 'Pepper Young's Family'. After graduating from college, he was drafted into the US Army and served as a Personnel and Broadcast Specialist at Fort Dix's WFDH radio station where he produced and narrated the 'Lifeline' series and directed and acted in over fifty radio dramas. After his discharge from the Army, Lackmann toured the US in stage productions of Auntie Mame, The Boy Friend, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, The Moon Is Blue, Death Of A Salesman and other plays and was seen on the TV series 'The First Hundred Years' and 'The Verdict is Yours'. He subsequently taught Speech and Drama for the Valley Stream Central HS District, hosted the Education In Action program for WHLI, Hempstead, New York, was a frequent co-host on WOR's Joe Franklin Show, was the narrator of Pan Am's "Music In The Air" programs, and was the voice of several cartoon characters including Farmer Grey on the syndicated Farmer Grey series. Lackmann has written over thirty books including Remember Radio, Remember Television, The Bonnie And Clyde Scrapbook (with Barbara Gelman), The Tv Soap Opera Almanac, The Encyclopedia Of American Radio, This Was Radio, Women Of The Western Frontier: In Fact, Fiction And Film, The Encyclopedia Of American Network Television and numerous books for Xerox Education Publicions. Lackmann continues to be active as a voice over performer and author.

Trivia

He was Max VonSydow's standin and photo double during the filming of The Exorcist (1973) and actually spent more time working on the film (five months) than VonSydow did. In addition to standing in for VonSydow, Lackmann was placed in an over 100 degree "Heat box" to test Dick Smith's age makeup which VonSydow's was to use in the Iraq sequences at the beginning of the film (these scenes were filmed months after all U.S. filming had been completed). Lackmann was Father Merrin's corpse when Jason Miller pounded on that character's chest trying to revive him after his heart attack and his shadow and hands were also used during the filming.

While in college in the 1950s, Lackmann played a character named Buddy on the popular radio soap opera series Pepper Young's Family.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 130, pp. 249-251. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Lackmann wrote a biography of radio/TV/film and stage actress Mercedes McCambridge, published in 2005 by Mc Farland Co., Inc and in that same year he also wrote Comic Strips to Radio, published by BearManor Media.

Serving as a U. S. Army Broadcast and Personnel Specialist stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey in 1958, Lackmann interviewed singer/actor Elvis Presley for W.F.D.H., for the Fort Dix Army hospital's Bedside Network, when Presley was en route to his Army assignment in Germany.

Wrote numerous articles for Screen Greats and Afternoon TV magazines.

Wrote numerous children's plays including Why the Indians Wear Moccasins, The Crooked Jar, The Obedient Daughters of Mitsuki Muri, for Plays, Inc. and The Grade Teacher magazines.