Dean Hart
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Dean Harry Anthony Hart (January 3, 1954 – November 21, 1990) was a Canadian–American amateur wrestler,
professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
, referee, wrestling as well as music promoter and member of the
Hart family The Hart wrestling family, sometimes known as the Hart dynasty, is a mainly Canadian family with a significant history within professional wrestling. The patriarch of the family was wrestling legend Stu Hart (1915–2003). An amateur and professi ...
who wrestled in Canadian regional promotions during the 1970s and 1980s, most notably in the Calgary-based
Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the pro ...
. He was the son of
Stu Stu is a masculine given name or nickname, usually a shortened form (hypocorism) of Stuart or Stewart. It may refer to: Stuart * Stu Barnes (born 1970), Canadian retired National Hockey League player * Stu Block (born 1977), Canadian singer-so ...
and Helen Hart and the younger brother of
Smith Smith may refer to: People * Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals * Smith (given name) * Smith (surname), a family name originating in England, Scotland and Ireland ** List of people wi ...
,
Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...
,
Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...
and Wayne, as well as older brother of Ellie, Georgia,
Bret Bret or BRET may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bret (given name), a personal name, including a list of people and fictional characters * Bret (surname), a list of people Other uses * a regional name for either the brill or the ...
, Alison, Ross, Diana and
Owen Hart Owen James Hart (May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999) was a Canadian-American professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wres ...
. Dean was widely regarded as the most handsome of the Hart brothers. He died at the age of 36 in 1990, from a heart attack induced by kidney failure.


Early life

He was of
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
descent through his maternal grandmother and Irish through his maternal grandfather. His father was mainly of Scots-Irish descent but also had Scottish and English ancestry. Hart was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States thanks to his mother Helen, who was born in New York. He was nicknamed Bizz (or Biz) by his siblings. His sister Diana has claimed that it was because he was always so busy with working on something, but his brother Bret said in his autobiography that it was because he was always up to some mischievous business. As a child he once accidentally started a fire in the Hart House while playing in the top floor.


Amateur wrestling

Hart was a good fighter and was the first of his siblings to win an amateur wrestling championship at high school.


Career


Professional wrestling


Stampede Wrestling and Amarillo

Born to
Stu Stu is a masculine given name or nickname, usually a shortened form (hypocorism) of Stuart or Stewart. It may refer to: Stuart * Stu Barnes (born 1970), Canadian retired National Hockey League player * Stu Block (born 1977), Canadian singer-so ...
and Helen Hart, Dean Hart began wrestling in his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion along with younger brothers
Bret Bret or BRET may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bret (given name), a personal name, including a list of people and fictional characters * Bret (surname), a list of people Other uses * a regional name for either the brill or the ...
and
Owen Hart Owen James Hart (May 7, 1965 – May 23, 1999) was a Canadian-American professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wres ...
during the 1970s. Dean was widely regarded as the most handsome of Stu Hart's sons. He also helped out behind the scenes for Stampede later on but remained mostly preoccupied with other endeavours during the 80s. Hart worked together with his brothers Bret and Bruce in Dory Funk's Amarillo wrestling promotion in Texas during the very early 70s. They were invited to travel to Amarillo due to the fact that they and Funk had become very good friends. The three of them traveled there alone and Bruce Hart described the journey as something akin to '' Stand By Me'' as they ran into several misadventures along the way, including getting chased by people who mistook them for hippies due to their long hair. Dean regularly filled in as a referee for his older brother Wayne when Wayne was sick, Dean portrayed his character as a less traditional sympathetic light than Wayne, being more a competent, strict and fair judge as opposed to a heroic one, to differentiate their characters more as Wayne was Stampede's main "
babyface Babyface or Baby Face can refer to: Nicknames * Lester Joseph Gillis a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, an infamous 1930s bank robber * Roosevelt "Baby Face" Willette (1933–1971), an American hard bop and soul-jazz musician * "Baby Face", Jimmy McLarnin ...
" referee. On one occasion in 1988, Hart was forced to judge a match alone without a partner as Jurgen Hermann, who was meant to be the main referee of the match, was absent from the show for unknown reasons, and Wayne was out with a knee injury. The match was a
Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship The Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title for lighter wrestlers in the Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion ba ...
match between
Chris Benoit Christopher Michael Benoit (; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career including most notably the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestlin ...
and
Johnny Smith Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Early life During the Great D ...
. Hart ended up accidentally botching the finish of the match, leading to Benoit regaining the title from Smith. This was not meant to happen as Dean was supposed to notice that Benoit's manager had thrown in an object for him to use in the ring to cheat, but Hart did not know this part of the match as he had not been told about it so he failed to disqualify him and Benoit won the title. This resulted in the promotion having to issue a rematch on 6/24 in Calgary.


National Wrestling Alliance, Hawaii

Hart vacationed many times and lived in Hawaii for lengthy times and befriended many wrestlers there, among them Prince Sui who later worked for his Stampede Wrestling on recommendation from Hart. Hart was also later associated with
Lia Maivia Ofelia Maivia (born Ofelia Fuataga; August 6, 1927 – October 19, 2008) was a Samoan professional wrestling promoter. Maivia was the wife of Samoan professional wrestler Peter Maivia and the grandmother of actor and wrestler, Dwayne Johnson, ...
and
Peter Maivia Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia (born Fanene Pita Anderson; April 6, 1937 – June 13, 1982) better known as Peter Maivia was a Samoan-American professional wrestler. Maivia was the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and was also part o ...
's Hawaii promotion, which was under the National Wrestling Alliance. While in Hawaii he became close to Maivia's grandson
Dwayne Johnson Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he was integral to the develop ...
(later known under the ringname The Rock). Despite this he remained one of the Hart children with the least involvement with the wrestling business.


Music promoting

Hart began promoting music shows at a very young age and held the first ever outdoors concert in Calgary when he was nineteen years old; the event was called ''Fantasy Park'' and featured people such as Charlie Rich and comedian Billie Holiday as well as model
Barbi Benton Barbi Benton (born Barbara Lynn Klein; January 28, 1950) is an American retired model, actress, television personality, and singer. She is known for appearing in ''Playboy'' magazine, as a four-season regular on the comedy series ''Hee Haw'', an ...
as a special guest. Hart regularly promoted music concerts in Clearwater Beach, which was owned by his father. He booked musical acts such as The Doors and Joe Cocker. Some time during the 80s he and his brother Bruce booked the band
Iron Butterfly Iron Butterfly is an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal musi ...
to perform on the beach this proved lead to difficulties when some of the band members got intoxicated. Some of Hart's rock concerts on the beach ended up being mismanaged and did not turn a profit. This led to payment issues and resulted in the area being burned down.


Personal life

At some point in the early 80s Hart, perhaps unwittingly, got involved in the Samoan mafia, he helped transport some boxes which contained weapons. Later the gangsters threatened Hart's life since they believed that he would testify against them in court when they were facing murder charges.


Family

Hart and his girlfriend Tammy had a daughter named Farrah Hart, born in April 1990.


Death

He suffered serious injuries in 1978 when struck by a city bus; the accident severely damaged his kidneys. He told his family very little of the accident. Diagnosed with
Bright's disease Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied ...
during the late 1980s, he died of a heart attack on November 21, 1990 at the Hart family mansion. He was cremated. Dean's death had a severe effect on his brother Bret, making him extremely distraught as he felt that they had grown apart too much in their later years. He was unsatisfied with how their last interactions had ended up, leaving him feeling like their relationship never got to recover like he wanted, and that in difference from their younger brother Owen, who died in 1999, affected things between them that could have been said and sorted out, but never were. Bret was also never offered time off by WWF or Vince McMahon, and he wrestled the next day. Family friend and fellow wrestler
Dory Funk Jr. Dorrance Earnest Funk (born February 3, 1941), known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. The son of Dory Funk (Dorrance Wilhelm Funk) and brother of Terry Funk, he was the promoter ...
was also very affected, stating that he felt like he had lost one of his own children since their families had always been so close. Dean was the first of the Hart family to suffer an early death. Dean's death shook the family's feeling of aplomb and the sense of invincibility that they had developed as a tight knit group, semi-isolated from mainstream society outside of the wrestling business. His sister,
Diana Hart Diana Joyce Hart (born 8 October 1963) is a Canadian-American writer, model, valet and wrestling personality. She is the youngest daughter of Canadian wrestling promoter Stu Hart and was the second to last child born to Stu and his wife Helen. Sh ...
, stated in her book that had any members of the Hart family been tested as a compatible donor, a
kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...
transplant might have saved his life. However, this option was never properly discussed by the family. His brother Bret has stated that the family was aware of the possibility of a transplant but that Dean had not been following the doctor‘s instruction about his diet and not done his daily dialysis as he had been told, this resulted in Dean dying unexpectedly at home before he could be taken to the hospital by their father.


Legacy

His death was the day before the WWF Survivor Series that year, and commentator Roddy Piper stated that Bret dedicated his match to Dean. Bret stated in a 2015 ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' interview that the match felt important to him despite him losing it. Hart's older brother Smith named two of his sons (Chad and Matt) Dean in middle name in honour of him. His sister Diana dedicated a chapter in her book '' Under the Mat'', named "Dean", to him. There is also a tribute video to Hart in his brother Bret's DVD documentary '' Bret "Hit Man" Hart: The Best There Is, the Best There Was, the Best There Ever Will Be''. A segment on the Hart family DVD '' Hart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology'' released by WWE is called "A letter from Dean" and focuses on his life and death.


Championships and accomplishments


Amateur wrestling

*
Ernest Manning High School Ernest Manning High School is a public senior high school located in the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, south of the Bow River. The school falls under the jurisdiction of the Calgary Board of Education. History The original Ernest Manning H ...
amateur wrestling championship.


Professional wrestling

*
NWA Mid-Pacific Promotions 50th State Big Time Wrestling (sometimes referred to as NWA Hawaii or Mid-Pacific Promotions) was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii in the United States that promoted professional wrestling matches throughout H ...
**
NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship The NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship was the primary tag team title of 50th State Big Time Wrestling and was defended between 1952 and 1979 when it was phased out. The title was later revived by the current incarnation of NWA Hawaii in 2000. It i ...
( 1 time) - with Steve Strong *
Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the pro ...
**Stampede British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship (2 times) * Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame **Class of 2001 *
Prairie Wrestling Alliance The Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA, formerly Prairie Wrestling Association) is an independent wrestling promotion based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, since 2001. The PWA is co-owned, operated, and promoted by Kurt Sorochan. Lance Storm is a form ...
** Prairie Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame (Class of 2010)


See also

*
List of premature professional wrestling deaths According to a 2014 study by Eastern Michigan University examining professional wrestlers who were active between 1985 and 2011, mortality rates for professional wrestlers are up to 2.9 times greater than the rate for men in the wider United State ...


References


Further reading

;Book * * ;Article *


External links

* *
RIP Dead Wrestlers: Dean Hart
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Dean 1954 births 1990 deaths Deaths from nephritis Canadian male professional wrestlers American male professional wrestlers Stampede Wrestling alumni Hart family members Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling referees Music promoters Canadian people of English descent Canadian people of Greek descent Canadian people of American descent Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent American people of Canadian descent American people of Scotch-Irish descent American people of English descent American people of Greek descent Professional wrestlers from Calgary 20th-century professional wrestlers