Josip Elic obit

Josip Elic, Actor in ‘One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest,’ Dies at 98

Josip Elic, the familiar character actor who carried Jack Nich\lson on his shoulders in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' has died. He was 98.

 

He was not on the list.

Josip Elic, the familiar character actor who carried Jack Nicholson on his shoulders in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has died. He was 98.

Elic died Monday in River Edge, New Jersey, of complications from a fall, producer and manager Matt Beckoff told The Hollywood Reporter.

A burly 6-foot-3 native of Montana, Elic also played a restaurant violinist who gets a bottle of champagne poured down his pants by Zero Mostel in Mel Brooks’ The Producers (1967) and appeared in Pocketful of Miracles (1961), starring Bette Davis and Glenn Ford.

On The Twilight Zone, he portrayed an officer in a future totalitarian state in the 1961 episode “The Obsolete Man” that starred Burgess Meredith, then returned a year later as a bomb-shelter electrician working for a revenge-seeking millionaire (Joseph Wiseman) in “One More Pallbearer.”

In Milos Forman’s Oscar best picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Elic played Bancini, a confused patient at the Oregon psychiatric hospital who says little — “My lines were, ‘I don’t know,'” he noted in a 2015 interview — and gives Nicholson’s R.P. McMurphy a ride on a basketball court. The scene was ad-libbed.

“I’m sitting down there on the bench watching them play basketball, and all of a sudden somebody is on my shoulders with their legs over my shoulders and over my head,” he told the North Jersey Record in December. “It was Jack Nicholson. I got up and said, ‘I’ll play the game with him,’ and I started playing basketball. He had thighs like you wouldn’t believe. Holy crap.”

Born Joseph Elich Jr. on March 10, 1921, in Butte, Montana his parents, Joseph and Martha, were immigrants from Croatia. After working in a copper mine and serving in the U.S. Navy, he attended acting school in New York City on the G.I. Bill and appeared in an off-Broadway production of Threepenny Opera in 1954.

He went on to appear on television in The Phil Silvers Show, Peter Gunn and The Untouchables and in such films as Murder, Inc. (1960), Convicts 4 (1962), Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971), Dirty Little Billy (1972), The World’s Greatest Lover (1977) and Black Rain (1989).

After he fell while living alone in his New York apartment, Elic spent more than a year in the home of actress Lee Meredith (she played the sexy Ulla in The Producers) and her husband, Bert, before recently moving to an assisted-living residence, according to the Record.

Actor (30 credits)

 1989 Black Rain

Joe, the Bartender

 1979 The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (TV Movie)

Zabaar the Zombie

 1977 The World's Greatest Lover

Headwaiter

 1977 Great Day (TV Movie)

Moose

 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Bancini

 1973 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Workman

 1972 The Stoolie

1st Hijacker

 1972 Dirty Little Billy

Jawbone

 1971 Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

Chomsky

 1969 Trilogy

HaHa (segment "A Christmas Memory")

 1968 For Love of Ivy

Off Broadway Family

 1967 The Producers

Violinist

 1966 Mr. Paracelsus, Who Are You? (TV Movie)

Uriah Boggs

 1966 ABC Stage 67 (TV Series)

HaHa

- A Christmas Memory (1966) ... HaHa

 1964 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Shim (as Joe Elic)

 1964 Mr. Broadway (TV Series)

Marty

- An Eye on Emily (1964) ... Marty (as Jossip Elic)

 1962 Convicts 4

Vic the Barber

 1962 Third of a Man (uncredited)

 1961-1962 Follow the Sun (TV Series)

Herschel / Ralph Metz

- Run, Clown, Run (1962) ... Herschel

- The Woman Who Never Was (1961) ... Ralph Metz

 1961-1962 The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

Electrician / Subaltern

- One More Pallbearer (1962) ... Electrician (uncredited)

- The Obsolete Man (1961) ... Subaltern (as Josep Elic)

 1961 Pocketful of Miracles

Darcey Henchman (uncredited)

 1961 Target: The Corruptors! (TV Series)

- Silent Partner (1961)

 1961 The Untouchables (TV Series)

Nitti Hood

- Tunnel of Horrors (1961) ... Nitti Hood (uncredited)

 1961 The Dick Powell Theatre (TV Series)

Gunsel

- Doyle Against the House (1961) ... Gunsel

 1961 The Asphalt Jungle (TV Series)

Luther

- The Fighter (1961) ... Luther (as Joseph Elic)

 1961 Peter Gunn (TV Series)

Professor Thurston

- The Deep End (1961) ... Professor Thurston

 1960 Murder, Inc.

'Red' Alpert

 1959 The DuPont Show of the Month (TV Series)

Centipede

- I, Don Quixote (1959) ... Centipede (as Joseph Elic)

 1959 The Phil Silvers Show (TV Series)

Bopster

- Bilko's Bopster (1959) ... Bopster

 1956 Kraft Theatre (TV Series)

Pvt. Adams

- Paper Foxhole (1956) ... Pvt. Adams