The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.

Dean Wormer, RIP.

From the Washington Post obit:

John Vernon, 72, a stage-trained actor who played a series of slimy villains and authority figures, never so well as in "National Lampoon's Animal House," in which he was the evil college dean, died Feb. 1 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from heart surgery.

Mr. Vernon did extensive voice-over work, starting with Big Brother in the 1956 film version of George Orwell's "1984."

But, citing his work in "Animal House," he once said, "I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to record people's answering-machine messages saying, 'Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.' "

He was born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz on Feb. 24, 1932, in Zehner, Canada, which he called a "one-grain-elevator town in Saskatchewan." While attending a Jesuit high school, he was chosen to read part of a Charles Dickens novel and so impressed his teacher that he was asked to become part of the theater group.

He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London with such peers as Peter O'Toole, Albert Finney and Alan Bates. He began his stage career as a spear carrier at the Stratford Festival of Canada.

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A National Public Radio report on Animal House as American cultural icon has video clips from the movie, as well as audio of Otis Day and the Knights singing "Shout." Elsewhere: Quotes and sounds from the movie.