Jack De Mave obit

Jack De Mave, Actor on ‘Lassie’ and ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ Dies at 91

He also played The Lone Ranger in commercials and appeared as the lawman in parades. 

He was not on the list.

Jack De Mave, who portrayed a U.S. forest ranger on Lassie and an unconventional date for Valerie Harper’s Rhoda Morgenstern on the second episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died. He was 91.

De Mave died Jan. 16 in hospice care in Macon, Georgia, his friend Vickie Lovett told The Hollywood Reporter. He had suffered a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day, she said.

The hunky De Mave also appeared in such films as the Rock Hudson-starring Blindfold (1966), 1776 (1972) — as John Penn — and Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face (1993), and in the 1970s, he played The Lone Ranger in a series of Frito-Lay commercials that led to appearances in parades and in front of kids as the wholesome lawman.

The stage-trained actor joined the cast of the enduring CBS drama Lassie at the start of its 15th season as Forest Ranger Bob Erickson in 1968 and worked on 23 episodes over two years. (He teamed with Jed Allan as fellow ranger Scott Turner during his time there.)

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode “Today I Am a Ma’am,” which premiered in September 1970, De Mave played Armond Lynton, who is invited by Rhoda to an evening get-together after she had accidentally “run him over” with her car a couple of days earlier. She had admired his “cleft chin.”

He arrives at Mary’s apartment with his wife of three weeks, Nancy (Sheilah Wells), and that leads Rhoda to introduce him: “And this is my date, Mr. and Mrs. Armand Lynton.”

De Mave returned to the CBS sitcom as the now-single Arnold for the second-season episode “Don’t Break the Chain.”

John Francois De Mave was born on Dec. 8, 1933, in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father, also Jack De Mave, was a Holland-born heavyweight boxing contender in the late 1920s and said to be Clifford Odets’ inspiration for the play Golden Boy. (His godfather was boxer Primo Carnera.)

His mother, Helen, was a casting director on Broadway, and though her, he got to meet Paul Muni backstage after a performance of Inherit the Wind in 1955. He told the Oscar winner, “I was thinking about maybe becoming an actor, but now I know that’s what I want to do,” he recalled in an interview a few years ago.

De Mave studied with Herbert Berghof, Mary Welch and Lee Strasberg, acted on local stages with Inger Stevens and Charlton Heston and appeared in 1958 with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in their last Broadway play, The Visit.

After working on live television on such anthology shows as Kraft Theatre, he moved to Los Angeles and showed up on episodes of such series as Surfside 6, Wagon Train, The F.B.I., F Troop and Daniel Boone before landing on Lassie.

De Mave also played the newscaster son of Bette Davis’ character in the 1974 NBC telefilm Hello Mother, Goodbye!; had roles on the soaps Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful and Loving; and booked guest spots on Marcus Welby, M.D., The Fugitive, Adam-12, The Doris Day Show and Ellery Queen.

He was married to Camille De Mave, who served as an assistant for Paul Newman and George Roy Hill, from 1963 until her death in 2013. His sister, Jachelene De Mave, a onetime ABC publicist, died seven or eight years ago, Lovett said.

Lovett said she has adopted De Mave’s beloved Sheltie, Tyler.

Actor

Ladies of the House (2008)

Ladies of the House

5.9

TV Movie

Host

2008

 

Meet the Santas (2005)

Meet the Santas

5.7

TV Movie

Douglas

2005

 

Days of Our Lives (1965)

Days of Our Lives

5.3

TV Series

Dr. Gregory Eldridge

1998

3 episodes

 

Mel Gibson and Nick Stahl in The Man Without a Face (1993)

The Man Without a Face

6.7

Mr. Cooper

1993

 

Heather Tom, Thorsten Kaye, and Katherine Kelly Lang in The Bold and the Beautiful (1987)

The Bold and the Beautiful

3.5

TV Series

Cal Clinton (as Jack DeMave)

1987

1 episode

 

Vic Noto in Loving (1983)

Loving

6.9

TV Series

Leroy Silver (1984)

1983–1995

 

Skeezer (1982)

Skeezer

7.8

TV Movie

Uncle Jim

1982

 

Robert Forster in The Darker Side of Terror (1979)

The Darker Side of Terror

5.0

TV Movie

Roger (uncredited)

1979

 

Ellery Queen (1975)

Ellery Queen

8.4

TV Series

Sonny North (uncredited)

1976

1 episode

 

Bob Crane and Patricia Harty in The Bob Crane Show (1975)

The Bob Crane Show

5.9

TV Series

Mike

1975

1 episode

 

Ernest Thompson in Sierra (1974)

Sierra

6.9

TV Series

Jerry

1974

1 episode

 

Bette Davis in Hello Mother, Goodbye! (1974)

Hello Mother, Goodbye!

8.0

TV Movie

Bobby Mullen

1974

 

Kent McCord and Martin Milner in Adam-12 (1968)

Adam-12

7.7

TV Series

Walt Jeffries (as Jack DeMave)

1973

1 episode

 

James Brolin, Robert Young, Barbara Sigel, and Elena Verdugo in Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969)

Marcus Welby, M.D.

7.0

TV Series

Reese Bennett

Dr. Wilder

1971–1973

2 episodes

 

1776 (1972)

1776

7.6

John Penn (NC) (uncredited)

1972

 

Deadly Harvest (1972)

Deadly Harvest

6.6

TV Movie

Franklin

1972

 

The Doris Day Show (1968)

The Doris Day Show

7.2

TV Series

Dave Genson (as Jack DeMave)

1972

1 episode

 

Sandy Duncan in Funny Face (1971)

Funny Face

6.6

TV Series

Ron Roland

1971

1 episode

 

Edward Asner, Valerie Harper, and Mary Tyler Moore in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

8.3

TV Series

Armond Lynton

1970–1971

2 episodes

 

Men at Law (1970)

Men at Law

6.1

TV Series

Larry Fairbanks

1971

1 episode

 

Jon Provost, Tommy Rettig, Lassie the Dog, and Lassie in Lassie (1954)

Lassie

6.5

TV Series

Bob Erickson

Bob Ericson

Bob Eriksen ...

1968–1970

24 episodes

 

David Janssen in The Fugitive (1963)

The Fugitive

8.1

TV Series

Second Deputy

1967

1 episode

 

Ken Berry, Melody Patterson, Larry Storch, and Forrest Tucker in F Troop (1965)

F Troop

7.4

TV Series

First Trooper Stanley

1967

1 episode

 

Fess Parker in Daniel Boone (1964)

Daniel Boone

7.3

TV Series

Tad Parsons

1967

1 episode

 

Claudia Cardinale, Rock Hudson, and Guy Stockwell in Blindfold (1966)

Blindfold

6.2

Homburg

1966

 

The F.B.I. (1965)

The F.B.I.

7.4

TV Series

Lieutenant

1965

1 episode

 

John McIntire in Wagon Train (1957)

Wagon Train

7.5

TV Series

Dr. Brill

1965

1 episode

 

Diane McBain and Van Williams in Surfside 6 (1960)

Surfside 6

7.8

TV Series

Lloyd Preston (as Jack DeMave)

1962

1 episode

 

Self

Life with Linkletter (1950)

Life with Linkletter

6.1

TV Series

Self - actor

1970

1 episode