3 min read
John Ring (March 14, 1932, New York City, New York - August 29, 2014, New Jersey)1 was an American character actor with a career spanning more than three decades in film and television. He is best remembered among Ghostbusters fans for portraying the Fire Commissioner in Ghostbusters (1984)2 and reprising the role in deleted scenes for Ghostbusters II (1989).
Join the community
Free accounts post in the forum, upload to the gallery, edit the wiki, and follow your favorite franchises. No credit card. No catch.
Ring was born on March 14, 1932 in New York City. Details of his early life and training are not widely documented in public sources.
Ring built a steady career as a supporting and character actor in New York-based film and television productions across the 1980s and 1990s. He frequently played authority figures, law enforcement officers, and civic officials, roles that suited his commanding presence on screen.
His earlier film appearances include the gritty police drama Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981), where he played Donohue, and the horror film Amityville II: The Possession (1982), in which he portrayed the Police Chief. He also appeared in the thriller A Stranger Is Watching (1982).1
In 1984, Ring appeared in both Ghostbusters and Sidney Lumet's comedy Garbo Talks, taking a doorman role in the latter. His other film credits include the Morgan Freeman drama Lean on Me (1989), the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and the action comedy The Hard Way (1991). He had a small role in John Landis's classic musical comedy The Blues Brothers (1980) early in his career.1
On television, Ring appeared in three episodes of the long-running legal procedural Law and Order between 1994 and 1999, and also had a credit on New York Undercover.1
Beyond his acting work, Ring accumulated additional credits in film production. He received an armorer credit on Black Dog and a props credit on The Last P.O.W.? The Bobby Garwood Story.3
Ring portrayed the Fire Commissioner, a senior civilian administrator of the New York City Fire Department, in the original Ghostbusters.2 The character appears in Chapter 24 ("Biblical"), summoned to Mayor Lenny's office during the crisis set off by Walter Peck's shutdown of the Ghostbusters' Containment Unit.4 The Commissioner contradicts Peck's dismissive characterizations with quiet authority, telling the Mayor that the events were no ordinary light show and that in all his career he had never seen anything like what was threatening the city.4 His measured, experienced reaction provides crucial credibility to the Ghostbusters' warnings at a pivotal moment in the film. In the film, Mayor Lenny addresses the character by his first name, John, a detail that happens to match the actor's own given name.4
Ring's character returned in several deleted scenes for Ghostbusters II, where he is credited and scripted as the Fire Captain rather than the Fire Commissioner.5 In the deleted scene "We're Getting Nowhere," Ray Stantz addresses the character as "Chief McGrory," effectively giving him the full name John McGrory across both films. The character appears outside the Manhattan Museum of Art when the Ghostbusters arrive to confront Vigo. The helmet worn by the character in the deleted scenes indicates the rank of Deputy Assistant Chief. These scenes did not appear in the theatrical release; a separate, different Fire Commissioner character (played by Erik Holland) appears in the final cut of Ghostbusters II.
The Fire Commissioner character also appears in the NOW Comics adaptation The Real Ghostbusters Starring in Ghostbusters II, Part 3.
John Ring died on August 29, 2014 in New Jersey. He was 82.1
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
"John Ring," IMDb, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0727543/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
Spook Central, "Ghostbusters Screen Credits," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.spookcentral.tk/sclib/ghostbusters-screen-credits.html "Fire Commissioner | John Ring" ↩ ↩2
"John Ring," TV Guide, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/john-ring/credits/3030391673/ ↩
Ghostbusters (1984), directed by Ivan Reitman. Columbia Pictures. Chapter 24: "Biblical." ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Ghostbusters II (1989), directed by Ivan Reitman. Columbia Pictures. Deleted scenes. ↩