Jack Betts, the character actor who appeared in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) and over a dozen Spaghetti Western movies, has died on the age of 96.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the information, Betts died Thursday in his sleep at his Los Osos, Calif. residence, his nephew, Dean Sullivan, mentioned.
Born Jack Fillmore Betts (saying he bore a relation to the thirteenth POTUS Millard Fillmore) on April 11, 1929 in Jersey Metropolis, NJ, he grew up in Miami, the place he finally studied theater at College of Miami. Afterward, he moved to New York Metropolis, the place he made his Broadway debut in 1953’s Richard III.
When a buddy requested him to assist with an audition for Lee Strasberg’s famed nonprofit, The Actors Studio, the director of the distinguished performing college granted him a three-year scholarship to check there. Because of this, the honored Elia Kazan later forged him in a manufacturing of Cat on a Sizzling Tin Roof. (He later returned to Braodway for Kazan’s 1959 manufacturing of Candy Fowl of Youth, in addition to a late ’70s revival of Dracula, wherein he as soon as portrayed the eponymous rely as Raul Julia’s standby.)
Betts’ first movie credit score was in 1959’s The Bloody Brood, and in 1966 he was forged because the title character in Franco Giraldi’s Sugar Colt, billed as Hunt Powers for the primary time. That kicked off a string of credit in over a dozen Spaghetti Westerns by the Nineteen Seventies.
On the tv aspect, Betts racked up a lot of appearances in daytime soaps, together with Common Hospital, The Younger Marrieds, The Fringe of Night time, The Medical doctors, One other World, All My Kids, Falcon Crest, Seek for Tomorrow, Guiding Mild, Generations and The Younger and the Stressed.
His different notable arcs included episodes for Perry Mason and The F.B.I., in addition to turns in well-liked sequence like Gunsmoke, Seinfeld, Mad TV, Frasier, All people Loves Raymond, Associates, The Mentalist and Monk. (Betts was nice mates with All people Loves Raymond star Doris Roberts, whom he met at The Actors Studio within the ’50s; the 2 shared a house from the late ’80s till her dying in 2016.)
In Spider-Man, Betts notably portrays Henry Balkan, the Oscorp Applied sciences board chairman who tells Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn, “You’re out, Norman,” kicking off the Inexperienced Goblin’s villainous arc. Afterward within the film, Osborn parrots again the phrase to Balkan, as he vaporizes the board in an assault on Occasions Sq., gleefully shouting: “Out, am I?” Further movie credit embrace 1993’s Falling Down with Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, the 1995 Val Kilmer-starring Batman Perpetually and 1998’s Gods and Monsters reverse Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser.
Along with his nephew, survivors embrace his nieces, Lynne and Gail, and his sister, Joan, who turns 100 in November.
Following the information of his dying, Beverly Hills Playhouse shared a tribute to the performer on Instagram, writing: “Our beloved Jack Betts handed away peacefully at residence. It’s a unhappy day for the BHP as we’ve loved his presence for thus a few years. There are actors who credit score him with their not giving up due to his encouragement. We had been so lucky to have loved his nice spirit, ardour and true dedication to the work. There was solely ever one like this and we’re the richer for having his presence in our theatre. Relaxation in peace, Jack.”
