What can you say about a classy actor? Except that there are so few who truly fit into the top ranking of that category. And John Spencer was one of them.
No matter when you saw him, he held the screen. He was the consummate late 20th century, 21st century character actor — and how sad it is that he won’t be around…as a person (because he was well liked) and as an actor (because he enriched our lives with the roles he took and the humanity portrayed in his performances). The AP had the sad news:
LOS ANGELES – John Spencer, who played a tough and dedicated politico on “The West Wingâ€? who survived a serious illness to run for vice president, died of a heart attack Friday. He was 58.
Spencer died after being admitted to a Los Angeles hospital during the night, said his publicist, Ron Hofmann. He would have been 59 on Tuesday.
He was “one of those rare combinations of divinely gifted and incredibly generous,� said actor Richard Schiff, who played Toby Ziegler on the NBC series.
Reuters report tells us:
Spencer also starred in popular 1990s television drama “L.A. Law” as tough-minded but funny attorney Tommy Mullaney.
Ron Hofmann, a spokesman for Spencer, said he had no knowledge of whether the actor suffered from a heart condition or other ailment that would have caused a heart attack. Like his character on “West Wing,” Spencer was an acknowledged alcoholic, but quit drinking long ago.
Spencer was the only child of Mildred and John Speshock. He left his home in Paterson, New Jersey, at age 16 to attend Professional Children’s School in New York City, and changed his name to Spencer.
His first big break came in 1963 playing Henry Anderson, the boyfriend of an English twin on “The Patty Duke Show.” For a time, he attended Fairleigh Dickenson University, but returned to New York to pursue a career in theater.
Eonline notes an irony and details the devastated cast members:
Tragically, for John Spencer, life didn’t imitate art.
A year after his West Wing alter ego survived a heart attack, Spencer was felled Friday morning by a deadly one. He was four days shy of his 59th birthday.
A 2002 Emmy winner for the long-running NBC presidential series, Spencer was an original and still key cast member as Leo McGarry, the battle-tested chief of staff turned vice presidential candidate.
“I can’t believe that he is gone,” costar Bradley Whitford said in a statement. “We have all lost a dear, dear brother.”
Allison Janney remembered her West Wing colleague as the “consummate professional actor.” Series creator Aaron Sorkin and executive producer Tommy Schlamme hailed Spencer as “an uncommonly good man.”
An NBC spokesman said Spencer died at a hospital. It was not known when the actor last worked on the set. After airing a new episode last weekend, the show is on hiatus until January.
There was always a decency and a kind of vulnerability about Spencer’s characters when they appeared on the screen. But no one realized the vulnerability would be so personal in the end. Spencer was one of that sublime category of actors — the character actor, the kind of actor who is often better than the names at the top of a program or film’s credit. The unsung heroes. But he did get lots of recognition and awards.
It’s now a cliche at times like this when a show biz great passes from the scene to say: “Film is immortal…His performances will live on.” True. On TV. DVDs. But it isn’t the same as having him here…here with us for many more years.
OTHER RESOURCES:
John Spencer bio and resume
TV.com
UPI story
USA Today
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.