Jack Mullaney

Dark-haired, congenial-looking actor 'Jack Mullaney' (qv) was one of those gangly and goofy nice guy types who pervaded innocuous 1950s and '60s film and TV comedy. Born on September 18, 1929 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he usually played the best buddy of the star who seldom got the pretty coed. Jack's poor schmucks were the huggable, clean-cut kind that every mother would want as a son. In minor film parts from 1957, he provided amiable comic relief, hanging around and about the periphery of silly, youth-oriented fluff, including the roles of an Air Force captain in _The Absent Minded Professor (1961)_ (qv), 'Vincent Price' (qv)'s slow-thinking assistant Igor in _Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)_ (qv), and 'Elvis Presley' (qv)'s klutzy sidekick in _Tickle Me (1965)_ (qv). Jack was also featured in Presley's film _Spinout (1966)_ (qv), but he and the film were met with little fanfare.TV sitcom work served the actor much better as the sure-to-please bellhop on _The Ann Sothern Show (1958)_ (qv) and accident-prone supply officer on _Ensign O'Toole (1962)_ (qv). Neither part, however, was strong enough to propel him to comedy stardom. Jack's best showcases were as the bungling scientist on _My Living Doll (1964)_ (qv) starring 'Robert Cummings' (qv) and the genial astronaut who ends up in the Stone Age in _It's About Time (1966)_ (qv) co-starring 'Frank Aletter' (qv), 'Imogene Coca' (qv), and 'Joe E. Ross' (qv). Jack's mode of comedy went out of style with the Vietnam Era and, despite a few glimpses of him in such 1970s films as _Little Big Man (1970)_ (qv) and _Where Does It Hurt? (1972)_ (qv), he couldn't sustain his career. Little was heard about Jack in the ongoing years until the news of his untimely death on June 1982 at age 52. He died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California (near Los Angeles) of complications from a stroke, and after services in California, was interred at the St. John Vianney Columbarium at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net