Richard Dean was an athlete, model and photographer, most known for co-hosting Cover Shot, a television makeover show on the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 cable TV network TLC

TLC (TV channel)

TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...

.

Biography

Born as Richard Cowen in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, Dean attended Winston Churchill High School

Winston Churchill High School (Montgomery County, Maryland)

Winston Churchill High School, often referred to as WCHS or Churchill, is a high school in Potomac, an unincorporated section of Montgomery County, Maryland....

 in Potomac, Maryland

Potomac, Maryland

Potomac is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, named for the nearby Potomac River. The population was 44,822 at the 2000 census. The Potomac area is known for its very affluent and highly-educated residents. In 2009 CNNMoney.com listed Potomac as the fourth...

 and the Lawrenceville School

Lawrenceville School

The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational, independent preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 located on in the historic community of Lawrenceville, in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, U.S., five miles southwest of Princeton....

 in Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

. He attended the University of Delaware

University of Delaware

The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

 on a football scholarship.

Career

He began working as a fashion model in the mid-1980s and later became a fashion and advertising photographer after teaching himself to take high-profile photos. His clients included Gianni Versace

Gianni Versace

Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Madonna, Elton John,...

, Yves St. Laurent, Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...

, Reebok

Reebok

Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...

, Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

, Fujifilm

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

, Beck's

Beck's

Brauerei Beck & Co is a German brewery in the north German city of Bremen. Owned by local families until February 2002, it was then sold to Interbrew for 1.8 billion euros. The brewery was formed under the name Kaiserbrauerei Beck & May o.H.G. in 1873 by Lüder Rutenberg, Heinrich Beck and Thomas...

, Michelob, Fila

Fila (company)

Fila is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturing companies. Founded in 1911 in Italy, Fila has been owned and operated from South Korea since a takeover in 2007. Headed by chairman and CEO Yoon-Soo Yoon, Fila now has offices in 11 countries worldwide....

, Playboy

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

 and TV Guide

TV Guide

TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

.

Dean's first appearance on a TV reality show was on UPN

UPN

United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

's America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....

. In 2006, he joined model Frederique van der Wal

Frederique van der Wal

Frederique van der Wal is a Dutch model, best known for her appearances in Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, and Victoria's Secret. Van der Wal grew up in the city of the Hague. She attended college in The Netherlands and earned a bachelor's degree in economics...

 on TLC's Cover Shot, in which "supermoms" were transformed into "supermodels".

Dean had worked in the fashion industry for over 15 years when he died of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...

, aged 50, at Beth Israel Medical Center

Beth Israel Medical Center

Beth Israel Medical Center is a 1,368-bed, full-service tertiary teaching hospital in New York City. Originally dedicated to serving immigrant Jews living in the tenement slums of the Lower East Side, it was founded at the turn of the 20th century. The main hospital location is the Petrie...

in Manhattan, New York.