[Header art by Dave Johnson]
Deadline reports stand-up comedian, film/TV producer, and writer Ron Zimmerman died from cancer on Thursday, July 28. He was 64 years old. Zimmerman’s credits included scripting several Marvel Comics titles in the 2000s, including “Spider-Man: Get Kraven,” “Ultimate Adventures,” and the controversial 2003 MAX reboot of “Rawhide Kid.”
Zimmerman’s earliest known credits include being a production associate on 1984’s Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, and its sequel Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. He wrote on the late ’80s sitcom Hard Knocks, and by the late ’90s he was a writer and producer on the shows 7th Heaven (where he also played the character of Doc), and V.I.P.. He was a friend of Howard Stern, and an appearance on his show led to Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada approaching him for a project.
He debuted at Marvel in 2002, writing John McCrea’s “Get Kraven,” a Hollywood satire that followed Kraven the Hunter’s son, Alexei “Al” Kravinoff, trying to make it in showbusiness; he also penned a Spider-Man and Jay Leno story by Greg Capullo, that ran as a back-up in several titles. The following year’s “Rawkide Kid,” illustrated by John Severin, proved to be controversial after it revealed the title character was gay: right-wing readers deplored the very idea, while left-wingers felt Zimmerman’s approach relied heavily on innuendo and stereotypes.
Zimmerman would revisit the character with artist Howard Chaykin on another miniseries in 2010, but was otherwise concentrating on TV again, working as a consulting producer and writer on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up (starring Zendaya and Bella Thorne.) His other credits included the Justice League Unlimited episode “Hawk and Dove,” and a 2017 episode of The Simpsons, “The Cad and the Hat.”
In 2010, Zimmerman also dated the legendary singer and actress Cher, who paid tribute to him on Twitter, stating, “My friend Ronny died today. Life is so fragile. Thank god I went to see him Wednesday nite. Just finished work & I’m beat.” At the time of the relationship, Cher described Zimmerman (who, at 52, was the oldest man she’d ever dated), as “short, a bit scraggly, like an absentminded professor. He’s the funniest person I have ever met, and the most eccentric — so bizarre and kind and very special.”
Gennefer Gross, a friend of Zimmerman, said she “was awed by how he deftly he volleyed between witty and vulnerable, a combination he’d mastered, and every laser sharp joke or chilling tale struck you to the core. A special person loved by all. RIP.” Quesada tweeted, “Ron was a brilliant writer with the innate talent of not just saying funny things but saying things funny,” and shared a link to Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” a song Zimmerman had recommended him years ago. “It feels fitting for the moment,” he said.
