{"id":9437,"date":"2026-07-18T09:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9437"},"modified":"2026-07-18T09:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:29:55","slug":"john-kirby-dead-acting-coach-was-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9437","title":{"rendered":"John Kirby Dead: Acting Coach Was 75"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tJohn Kirby, the longtime acting coach and son to Bruce Kirby, has died. He was 75. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKirby died Wednesday three years after being diagnosed with ALS. His associate, Nathan Besbitt, confirmed his death on Instagram. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI am here to officially, with a broken heart, announce the passing of our beloved John on the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 15, and it has been devastating for all of us, and we\u2019re trying to just find a way to cope,\u201d Besbitt said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKirby lent his talents as an acting coach to a number of projects across his career, and was a frequent collaborator with Jim Caviezel. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe two worked together on films including <em>Frequency<\/em> (2000); Pay<em> It Forward<\/em> (2000); <em>Angel Eyes<\/em> (2001); <em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>\u00a0(2002);\u00a0<em>High Crimes<\/em>\u00a0(2002);\u00a0<em>I Am David<\/em>\u00a0(2003); <em>The Final Cut<\/em>\u00a0(2004);\u00a0<em>Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius<\/em>\u00a0(2004);\u00a0<em>Unknown<\/em>\u00a0(2006); and <em>Paul, Apostle of Christ<\/em> (2018). Kirby also served as Caviezel\u2019s acting coach for the 2009 miniseries <em>The Prisoner<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHis additional credits tied to coaching include 2003\u2019s <em>Peter Pan<\/em>, <em>The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Outlander, Hotel California, Scream 4<\/em>, <em>Stick It<\/em> and<em> Prom<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKirby\u2019s family was connected within the entertainment industry, with <em>The Muppet Movie<\/em> actor Bruce Kirby being his father. His brother, Bruno Kirby, also pursued acting, appearing in <em>City Slickers, Good Morning, Vietnam <\/em>and<em> When Harry Met Sally\u2026<\/em>, among others. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe acting coach was <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.givelively.org\/donate\/hark-als\/jim-caviezel-for-john-kirby-als-battle-costs?fbclid=PAdGRleATHowJwZG9mAmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzEyNDAyNDU3NDI4NzQxNAABp7VgY83Ze1aexX_N5mMnqGTVy_k39D6kGdoYnGiLNLUtk8MZBEcLT9RO0QNM_aem_J43ZfNEsei-j7hlusag8MQ&amp;utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio\">diagnosed<\/a> with ALS on June 7, 2023, after experiencing symptoms a year prior. He suffered a hard fall that resulted in a hip fracture on June 1 of the same year which led to his diagnosis. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tA celebration of life will be held on Aug. 15 at the Hall of Liberty Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, and is open to the public. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Kirby, the longtime acting coach and son to Bruce Kirby, has died. He was 75. Kirby died Wednesday three years after being diagnosed with ALS. His associate, Nathan Besbitt, confirmed his death on Instagram. \u201cI am here to officially, with a broken heart, announce the passing of our beloved John on the early morning&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-17-at-8.58.50-PM-e1784347190822.png?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}