Published Nov. 24, 2009
By Dori O’Neal, Herald staff writer
The Tri-City theater community is a little sadder, a little less flamboyant this week after losing one of its most beloved actors.
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| Fred Dixon applauded for his role in CBC’s production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. Photo: Dawn Alford, CBC |
Fred Dixon, a retired Columbia Basin College drama teacher and iconic actor in local theater, died last week of cancer. He was 77.
To say the Tri-City theater community is heartbroken would be an understatement.
“Fortunately, I was able to visit with Fred a few days before his death,” said Dixon’s longtime friend and fellow actor Tom Powers. “I told him he helped me to grow as an actor and he told me we helped each other, which is so like him to say. We might have sparred in auditions for decades but we were always friends. I will miss him so much.”
Powers and Dixon’s friendship goes back almost 50 years.
“I first met Fred in 1962 when we were both auditioning for the lead in Richland Light Opera’s The Music Man,” Powers said. “Fred and I had a long and wonderful competitive friendship. He and I were many times trying out for the same role in the same production. Sometimes I’d get the lead, but I think he won out more than I did.”
Julie Schroeder, a drama teacher for the Academy of Children’s Theatre, also was heartsick after learning of Dixon’s death.
“Fred’s passing is so very sad,” Schroeder said. “He was like theater royalty in this community.”
One of her favorite memories of Dixon was finding out he used to be on the soap opera Love of Life.
“I thought that was so cool,” she said.
But her fondest memory was Dixon teaching her the acting ropes at CBC years ago.
“He was always the kindest, most encouraging teacher in that class, which is sometimes hard to find in a theater teacher,” Schroeder said. “He definitely influenced the way I work with others in any theater capacity. This community has suffered the loss of a true gentleman.”
Dixon accomplished much during his 71 years as an actor.
He first appeared onstage at age 6 when his mother, who ran a children’s theater troupe in Utah, cast him in one of her productions.
But it wasn’t until his late teens when he saw Julie Harris in I Am A Camera that Dixon was hooked on acting.
Dixon moved to New York City in 1958 and for the next few years performed in summer stock theaters on the East Coast. He and fellow budding actor Robert Redford struck up a friendship in those early years. He met Redford through his then wife, who Dixon had grown up with.
Then in 1962, the Tri-Cities first lured him away from New York when he accepted a temporary job at CBC teaching drama and speech. He soon met his wife Pat and started a family, which led him to accept a full-time job at CBC.
He was often described as a brilliant actor who had a quiet, winning way about him.
He was simply “a joy to work with and an excellent performer,” said Ginny Quinley, CBC drama instructor.
In 2007 he returned to New York City for a Broadway’s Biggest Fan competition. He was one of thousands of contestants who made the final cut and he took second place.
The competition was judged by 20,000 screaming Broadway fans who showed up at the finals held at Times Square.
“The audience voted by applause for the finalists,” Dixon told the Herald after the contest. “I came in second to a charming handicapped teenager from Cleveland who really got around well using a specially designed walker.”
His gracious comment about losing the contest to a younger Broadway lover is typical of the man he was, say his peers.
“Fred (was) the consummate professional, and the most gracious and loveliest person I’ve ever known,” Quinley said.
Dixon is survived by his wife of 46 years, Pat, four grown daughters and numerous grandchildren.
A celebration of his life starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 515 S. Union St., Kennewick.
Additional news stories can be accessed online at the Tri-City Herald.