Jay North, who starred because the younger mischief maker with the attribute blond cowlick on the 1959-63 CBS comedy Dennis the Menace, has died. He was 73.
North died Sunday at his residence in Lake Butler, Florida, after years of battling colon most cancers, Jeannie Russell, who performed Margaret Wade on his present, advised The Hollywood Reporter. She referred to as him her “otherworldly brother.”
On Display screen Gems’ Dennis the Menace, based mostly on the cartoon created by Hank Ketcham, North starred because the well-intentioned however troublesome Dennis Mitchell, the one youngster of Henry (Herbert Anderson) and Alice (Gloria Henry). He typically created chaos for his retired next-door neighbor George Wilson after which his brother, John Wilson (Gale Gordon).
(Joseph Kearns had performed George, and after his dying in 1962, Gordon was introduced on to switch him).
North was 6 when he first auditioned for Dennis, 8 when the present went on the air in October 1959 and nearly 12 when the collection was canceled after 4 seasons. Nonetheless, he can be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers through the years because the half-hour present performed in reruns and in syndication.
In a 1993 interview, North mentioned he was not sad to see Dennis the Menace come to an finish.
“Between the pressures of the enterprise and Joe’s dying, I turned very severe, very morbid and really withdrawn from the world. I used to be the antithesis of the little child that I performed on the tv present,” he mentioned.
North then starred as one other impish child within the MGM film Zebra within the Kitchen (1965), directed by Ivan Tors, and performed reverse Clint Walker within the India-set journey Maya (1966), additionally for MGM.
He returned for a 1967-68 Maya collection for NBC and located that to be a really rewarding expertise, he mentioned.
An solely youngster, North was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 1951. He was 4 when his father, additionally Jay, left the household, and he by no means noticed him once more. His mom, Dorothy, labored as a secretary for AFTRA.
By means of his mother, North appeared on the L.A. youngsters TV present Cartoon Categorical, and it was there that he was noticed by expertise agent Hazel MacMillan. She acquired him on such exhibits as Wished: Useless or Alive, 77 Sundown Strip and Sugarfoot earlier than he was employed for Dennis the Menace, together with his reddish hair bleached platinum blonde.
Whereas the collection was on the air, North additionally appeared as Dennis on The Donna Reed Present and The Pink Skelton Hour and within the 1960 musical comedy movie Pépé, starring Cantinflas.
All alongside, he mentioned he was abused by his aunt, who was his guardian on the present. “If it took me multiple of two takes, I might be threatened after which whacked,” he advised the Los Angeles Every day Information in 1993.
“Even when a delay wasn’t my fault, she would discover a technique to blame me and punish me. She was additionally very possessive and remoted me from the remainder of the solid. I couldn’t even eat lunch with all people else. She made me eat it within the dressing room on my own.”
After the Maya collection, North graduated from Rexford Senior Excessive College in Beverly Hills in 1969 and labored as a voice actor on such youngsters exhibits as The Banana Splits Journey Hour and The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Present.
In 1974, he starred within the R-rated thriller The Instructor, starring Angel Tompkins, after which served briefly within the U.S. Navy. In 1988, he was the sufferer of a information hoax that mentioned he had died in a health care provider’s workplace.
Extra not too long ago, North labored with Paul Petersen within the The Donna Reed Present actor’s group, A Minor Consideration, to assist former childhood stars cope with actual life; served as a correctional officer in Florida; and confirmed up within the 2003 movie Dickie Roberts: Former Baby Star.
Survivors embrace his third spouse, Cindy.