Quentin Tarantino Announces the Passing of ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Star ‘Rick Dalton’ — Tributes Pour In

Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino attend the photocall for "Once Upon A Time In Holl
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Warner Todd Huston

Hollywood star Rick Dalton has died peacefully at his home in Hawaii at the age of 90, the star’s close friend Quentin Tarantino tells us.

Tarantino divulged the news to a grieving film world Friday, writing on social media, “We are saddened by the news of the passing of actor Rick Dalton, best known for his roles in the hit TV series Bounty Law and The Fireman trilogy.”

“Rick passed away peacefully in his home in Hawaii and is survived by his wife Francesca,” the acclaimed director wrote from the Twitter account of his “Video Archives” Podcast. “RIP Rick Dalton 1933-2023.”

Along, with the star’s passing, Tarantino said that his podcast will be postponed so that producers can present a tribute show.

“Because of his passing, the episode for Rollerball has been postponed. Instead, we will come back on Tuesday with a memorial episode designed by Quentin that features some of Rick’s best roles,” Tarantino wrote.

Dalton appeared in such powerhouse hits as Bounty Law and The Fourteen Fists of McCluskey, not to mention a decade’s worth of hit TV shows, all of which will be chronicled in Tarantino’s upcoming book, “The Films of Rick Dalton.”

His biggest regret, Dalton later said, was that he didn’t take the role of Virgil Hilts in the classic WWII caper film, The Great Escape, a role that was made famous by a motorcycle-riding Steve McQueen.

Fittingly, many tributes have poured in:

“Wait a minute,” you may be asking, “I don’t quite remember these hit movies… or Rick Dalton.”

Well, don’t feel as if you are missing a big part of Hollywood history, because star Rick Dalton doesn’t really exist. He was the main character in Tarantino’s hit film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the quintessential, but fictional, Hollywood star.

“I wrote The Films of Rick Dalton book,” Tarantino said, according to Deadline. “It’s written as if Rick is real. You know, they have The Films of Charles Bronson and The Films of Anthony Quinn, well, it’s done like that, with synopsis and then some critical quotes from the time, and the book goes through every one of Rick’s movies that he did, leading to the end of his career in 1988, I believe, and every one of his episodic television shows.”

Tarantino also described the fictional film The Fireman that Dalton supposedly starred in.

“The lead character was in the Vietnam War, he became a cop,” Tarantino said. “And then he starts seeing this whole group of bad apple cops that are killing these guys and just completely corrupt and they end up killing his partner, played by a very young Sam Jackson. Then Rick targets these bad cops, and he gets dressed up as the Fireman, and he has his flamethrower and he goes and he burns them all down.”

The 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood starred DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, Brad Pitt as his stuntman pal Cliff Booth, and Margot Robbie as Dalton’s neighbor, actress Sharon Tate. The movie was both a critical and a box office success, earning over $370 million and garnering ten Academy Awards nominations. Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Booth, and DiCaprio was nominated for Best Actor.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.