Mr. Jay North was most remembered for his role as the towheaded Dennis Mitchell in the CBS television series, which aired from 1959 to 1963.
Jay North, who portrayed the well-meaning, trouble-making protagonist of the iconic CBS comedy “Dennis the Menace” from 1959 to 1963, died on Sunday at his home in Lake Butler, Florida. He was 73.
Laurie Jacobson, Mr. North’s friend of 30 years, verified his death. Ms. Jacobson said that the reason was colon cancer.
Mr. North portrayed the towheaded Dennis Mitchell, who wandered his neighborhood with his buddies, generally dressed in a striped shirt and overalls, and frequently irritated his neighbor, a retiree called George Wilson (played by Joseph Kearns). Herbert Anderson played Dennis’ father, while Gloria Henry played his mother.
Dennis ends up generating a lot of trouble, often by unintentionally.
In one episode, a truck knocks over a street sign, and Dennis and a buddy attempt to put it back up wrong. Workers then dig a massive hole in Mr. Wilson’s yard, which is supposed to be a pool for another address.
However, things were not simple for Mr. North behind the scenes.
Many years after “Dennis the Menace” ended, Mr. North said that his acting fame came at the expense of a happy upbringing.
In 1993, he told The Los Angeles Daily News that his aunt and uncle cared for him on set because his single mother worked full-time. He said that his aunt and uncle, who had deceased at the time of the interview, assaulted him physically and mentally.
“If it took me more than one or two takes, I would be threatened and then whacked,” the actor stated.
Mr. North stated that it took Rusty Hamer’s suicide at the age of 42
“I’m finally starting a new life and burying Dennis Mitchell,” Mr. North stated in the Daily News interview. “I need very badly again to be Jay North.”
Mr. North stated that it took Rusty Hamer’s suicide at the age of 42, a child star on “The Danny Thomas Show” (also known as “Make Room for Daddy”) in the 1950s and 1960s, to make him re-evaluate his life.
Jay Waverly North Jr. was born on August 3, 1951, in Los Angeles and raised there.
Mr. North began acting at the age of five, imploring his mother to help him go on “The Engineer Bill Show,” a classic children’s program from the 1950s also known as “Cartoon Express.”
He featured on multiple episodes of the show and started advertising brands like Post cereals.
“The kids were used as a participating stage audience, and I asked her to help me get on the show,” Mr. North explained to The New York Times in 1993.
After “Dennis the Menace” finished, Mr. North appeared on other television series, including
“Wagon Train,”
“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,”
“The Lucy Show,”
“My Three Sons,”
and “Jericho.”
He played the lead in the feature film “Maya” (1966), about two teens who travel through India on an elephant, and went on to act in the film’s brief offshoot television series, also called “Maya.”
Mr. North also provided the voice of Prince Turhan in “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” and the teenage Bamm-Bamm Rubble in “The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.”
However, his acting career soon withered.
Mr. North claimed he was frequently typecast and found it difficult to re-establish himself following “Dennis the Menace.” He enrolled in the United States Navy in 1977 and received an honorable discharge in 1979.
Mr. North later relocated to Lake Butler, Fla., and worked as a prison officer for the Florida Department of prison. In 1993, he married his third wife, Cindy Hackney, who still lives.
In a 1987 HBO satire series “Not Necessarily the News,” he played an enraged, violent version of himself obsessed with revenge on Hollywood executives who had ignored him, all while wearing Dennis the Menace’s signature overalls and striped shirt. (also titled “Make Room for Daddy”) in the 1950s and ’60s to help him re-evaluate his life.
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