October 10, Birthday Wishes

Richard Jaeckel [1926 - 1997]
Dana Elcar [1927 - 2005]

Howdy Manco!!

A TRIBUTE TO A TOUGH L'IL GUY!!

Richard Jaeckel was a mail carrier for 20Th Century Fox in 1943, when he was spotted by a casting director and signed to a part in Guadalcanal Diary and he was off and running on a career that lasted over 50 years, until 1994. A short, stocky blonde actor, who, for some reason or other, was typecast as a tough guy during most of his career. Early in his career he appeared in Battleground, Sands Of Iwo Jima, Gunfighter, Apache Ambush and in the 50's, he began to appear on many of the western t.v. series as gunslingers, soldiers and bounty hunters in Stories Of The Century, Cimarron City, The Grey Ghost, The Texan, Tales Of Wells Fargo and dozens of others He appeared in over 70 films and innumerable t.v. series during his long film career. I remember Jaeckel from so many roles he played in both film and t.v. His role of Charlie Prince, in the original 3:10 To Yuma and Jess Evans, the former friend of Billy The Kid, turned bounty hunter in Chisum, the brother of Paul Newman, who drowns and Newman ties him to a floating log, in Sometimes A Great Notion and his role of Deputy "Kip" McKinney in Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, along with his role of the blonde scrapper, who Dean Martin knocks off the riverboat, in 4 For Texas and the tough Sergeant, who kept Clint Walker and Telly Savalas and the rest of The Dirty Dozen covered with a sub-machine gun, and again as a Calvery Sgt. in Ulzana's Raid and as the hard as nails, N.S.A. Supervisor in Starman. I also remember the many co-starring roles he had in several t.v. series, like Banyon, Firehouse, Salvage 1 and Baywatch. In 1994, Jaeckel was forced to declare bankruptcy on a debt of 1.7 million dollars. He was also diagnosed with melanoma, the disease that would eventually kill him. He lost his Brentwood home and had to move to the Motion Picture Actors's Retirement Home in Woodland Hills Calif., where he died in 1997. When asked about his disease, Jaeckel replied" I know there are a lot of people pulling for me to beat this thing, but let them have a glass for me at the bar and let it go"
Richard Jaeckel was a tough l'il guy all the way to the end!!


Dana Elcar was a short, beefy, balding actor, whose film career was mostly in t.v. He did appear in several films of note, such as The Boston Strangler, and had good roles in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid and as
the fake F.B.I. agent in The Sting. He also appeared on several western t.v. series, like Gunsmoke, The Virginian and Alias Smith And Jones, but appeared most often in series like The Bold Ones, The Protectors, N.Y.P.D. and Hawaii Five-O. Elcar was a very good character actor and was cast in supporting roles as Sheriff Patterson on the 1966 t.v. series, Dark Shadows, as Lt. Shiller on the 70's series, Baretta, as Col. Lard on Black Sheep Squadron and the role he will probably be best remembered for, that of Pete Thornton on the 1985-1992 series, MacGyver.

Ed

Ed, don't forget that Richard Jaeckel played the role of Lt. Martin Quirk on Spenser For Hire with Robert Urich. I liked him in Sands of Iwo Jima, where he and his brother were always fighting each other, and the joke was they were from Philadelphia, the city of "brotherly love."

Also today:

Chris Penn (1965-2006) was the brother of actor Sean Penn, and appeared in movies like Footloose, All the Right Moves, Pale Rider, Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and The Funeral, as well as a cameo as Charles Goodnight in the Lonesome Dove prequel Dead Man's Walk. His untimely death at the age of 40 was due to an enlarged heart cause by his constant weight gain and prescription drugs.