Yahoo Lifestyle Familiar Face in Classic TV Series of '60s and '70s Dies at 91
Actor Jack De Mave, known for appearing on such classic TV shows as Lassie and The Mary Tyler Moore Show is dead at 91.
De Mave's friend, Vickie Lovett, told The Hollywood Reporter that the star died on Jan. 16 in Macon, Ga. He was in hospice care at the time, after suffering a heart attack on Thanksgiving Day.
Born as John Francois De Mave on Dec. 8, 1933, in Jersey City, N.J., De Mave's Holland-born father—also Jack De Mave—was a heavyweight boxer in the 1920s, said to be the inspiration for the Clifford Odets play Golden Boy. De Mave's mother, Helen, was a Broadway casting director.
The late actor studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Mary Welch, going on to appear in stage productions with the likes of Inger Stevens and Charlton Heston. He also starred alongside Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in their last Broadway play, The Visit.
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After doing some live television, De Mave left the East Coast for Los Angeles, where he found work on episodes of such TV series as Surfside 6 and Daniel Boone before winning the role of Forest Ranger Bob Erickson on Lassie.
In addition to appearing on 23 episodes of the classic show about a clever dog, De Mave played a date for Valerie Harper's Rhoda Morgenstern on the second episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
He also appeared in such films as Blindfold with Rock Hudson (1966) and Mel Gibson’s The Man Without a Face (1993). In the '70s, De Mave played The Lone Ranger in a series of Frito-Lay commercials, going on to appear as the character in parades.
De Mave was married to Camille De Mave, an assistant director, from 1963 until her death in 2013.
