Once in a while in the horror community but within the Friday the 13th community, we lose one of our own, and today we now know the loss of John R. Marks who passed away on February 17th, 2022, Mr.Marks was one of the original actors in the Friday the 13th film timeline for the franchise and was credited as a Police officer, but we have known him as Deputy Winslow, one of Jason's victims within the franchise, who died heroically.
This sudden and sad news of losing an original (aka a veteran) within the franchise is heavy-hitting because he was apart of cinema history even for a brief moment in the film series.
This was confirmed by his wife of 39 years, Linda Marks who had to sadly give confirmation:
Linda“after a long, slow decline from congestive heart failure. He just short of 87 years old”.
She went on to give her peace after mourning the loss of her beloved following with:
Lindamostly did off-Broadway and regional theater. His biggest venues were touring nationally as the father in Brighton Beach Memoirs and dying heroically in the movie Friday the 13th Part 2. He was proudest of his starring dual performance in Athol Fugard’s play Valley Song, which he performed on Martha’s Vineyard. He also relished performing the old man, Lazar Wolf, in three different out-of-town productions of Fiddler on the Roof. When acting work became more difficult to get, he took up writing, producing hundreds of vibrant short stories and a few poems.
We here as a community want to wish Mrs.Marks and their family our deepest but real sincere condolences and we respect her decision to come out publically about this information, we know losing a loved one is an emotional moment in any person's life so we want to make sure that they get the love and well-respected space from our community.
Rest In Heaven John you will be missed.