Best known to horror fans for playing the character Rob Dier in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, actor Erich Anderson has sadly passed away after a battle with cancer.
Michael O’Malley wrote on Instagram, “My brother in law Erich Anderson passed this morning after a brutal struggle with cancer. He had a long successful career as an actor—he was on that old show “30 Something”; he was Felicity’s father on “Felicity”; he was killed in a basement in a Friday the 13th movie; he was on Star Trek and dozens of other shows.”
“He was a smart and funny guy, a fantastic cook; he wrote three great novels which you can find on Amazon,” O’Malley continues. “I’ll miss him but his ordeal is over.”
Released in 1984, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was one of Erich Anderson’s very first acting roles. He played the character Rob Dier, the brother of Friday the 13th Part II character Sandra Dier who travels to Crystal Lake to avenge his sister’s murder at the hands of Jason.
Anderson also appeared in over three hundred episodes of television and fifty theater productions, as well as twenty feature films including Missing in Action, Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story, The Final Cut, Nightwatch, Thick as Thieves, Unfaithful, and Officer Downe. His television roles include “Murder, She Wrote,” “Dallas,” “Quantum Leap,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Melrose Place,” “Matlock,” “7th Heaven,” “Touched by an Angel,” “ER,” “NYPD Blue,” “The X-Files,” “CSI,” “The Outer Limits,” “NCIS,” “House,” “Bones,” and “Bosch.”
Erich Anderson’s three aforementioned novels include Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Kingdom Come, and Rabbit: A Golf Fable, all of which can indeed be purchased through Amazon.
Erich Anderson is survived by his wife, Saxon Trainor.