The star of the 1960s television show, “Dennis the Menace,” has died.
Jay North was 73 years old.
North died from colorectal cancer at his home in Lake Butler, Florida, on April 6, his friend Laurie Jacobson said.
North was born in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 1951. He started appearing on television around the age of 5, appearing on “The Engineer Bill Show,” also known as “Cartoon Express.”
His mother was a secretary at the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and arranged for him to be on the show where he was discovered by agent Hazel MacMillan.
He also started promoting various products, including Post cereal.
He had a few bit parts before he had his big break as Dennis Mitchell, who was better known as the titular character “Dennis the Menace.”
The New York Times called the character North portrayed as a “mischievous” child who was “often exasperating a neighbor, a retiree named George Wilson,” based on the Hank Ketcham comic strip.
Wilson was played by Joseph Kearns.
He also appeared on shows such as “Wagon Train,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Lucy Show” and “My Three Sons.
He was also on the big screen in the film “Maya” and its spinoff television show.
North also lent his voice to Prince Turhan in “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour” and “The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show,” playing the teenage version of the son of Barney and Betty from “The Flintstones,” Bamm-Bamm.
North said it was not all that it appeared to be as a child actor, telling The Los Angeles Daily News in 1993 that his aunt, who was his on-set caretaker while his mother worked, physically and emotionally abused him.
“If it took me more than one or two takes, I would be threatened and then whacked,” North told the publication. “Even if a delay wasn’t my fault, she would find a way to blame me and punish me. She was also very possessive and isolated me from the rest of the cast. I couldn’t even eat lunch with everybody else. She made me eat it in the dressing room by myself.”
His aunt had died by the time of the interview.
He said that the death of fellow child star Rusty Hamer, who died by suicide at the age of 42, made him realize that he needed to get back to being himself, not the television character.
“I’m finally starting a new life and burying Dennis Mitchell,” North told the newspaper. “I need very badly again to be Jay North.”
He eventually joined the Navy in 1977 and was honorably discharged in 1979.
After his military career, he was an officer with the Florida Department of Corrections, but he also continued to act on occasion, playing himself in episodes of “Not Necessarily the News” and “The Simpsons.”
His last role was as himself in "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star."
North leaves behind his wife, Cindy Hackney.
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