John Spencer (actor)
| John Spencer | |
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| Born | John Speshock, Jr. December 20, 1946 New York City, New York |
| Died | December 16, 2005 (aged 58) Los Angeles, California |
| Cause of death | Myocardial infarction |
| Resting place | Laurel Grove Memorial Park, Totowa, New Jersey |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1983–2005 |
| Notable work(s) | Leo McGarry on The West Wing |
| Home town | Totowa, New Jersey |
| Partner(s) | Patricia Mariano |
| Parents | John Speshock, Sr. Mildred Speshock |
| Awards | Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series 2002 The West Wing |
John Spencer (December 20, 1946 – December 16, 2005) was an American actor. He played White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the hit NBC political drama series The West Wing, for which he won an Emmy Award in 2002.
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Early life [edit]
Spencer was born John Speshock, Jr. in New York City and raised in Totowa, New Jersey.[1] He was the son of blue-collar parents Mildred (née Bincarowski), a waitress, and John Speshock, Sr., a truck driver.[2][3][1] Spencer was of Irish and Rusyn descent. With his enrollment at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 1963, Spencer found himself sharing classes with such fellow students as Liza Minnelli and violinist Pinchas Zukerman. He attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, but did not complete a degree.[1] Spencer often referred to himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool liberal" and described Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of his heroes.[4]
Career [edit]
Spencer began his television career on The Patty Duke Show, and eventually began appearing in supporting roles in feature films commencing with 1983's WarGames. He won an Obie Award for the 1981 off Broadway production of Still Life, about a Vietnam War veteran, and received a Drama Desk nomination for "The Day Room." He became a full-fledged supporting actor with the hit 1990 courtroom thriller Presumed Innocent portraying a tough, veteran homicide detective, starring opposite Harrison Ford. The same year, Spencer joined the cast of the television series L.A. Law, playing rumpled, pugnacious, street wise, trial attorney Tommy Mullaney. Spencer's work also extended to video games, portraying the role of Captain Hugh Paulsen in the 1995 video game Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom.
From 1999 until his death in 2005, Spencer was cast as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the hit NBC political drama series The West Wing. Both Spencer and his character were recovering alcoholics. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2002, after being judged on the show's third season episodes "Bartlet for America" and "We Killed Yamamoto".
Death [edit]
Spencer died of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital on December 16, 2005, four days before his 59th birthday. At Spencer's private funeral, his West Wing castmate Kristin Chenoweth sang the musical number "For Good" from the hit Broadway musical Wicked. Spencer's remains were interred at Laurel Grove Memorial Park in his hometown of Totowa, New Jersey.[5] At the time of his death, Spencer had filmed two of the five West Wing episodes that were in post-production: "Running Mates" and "The Cold". Spencer's death was subsequently written into the show's seventh and final season, in which McGarry was said to have died of a heart attack on election night. It was a strange twist of fate that McGarry had also suffered a life-threatening heart attack earlier in the show's sixth season episode "The Birnam Wood".[6] Spencer's name remained in the opening credits through the remainder of the show's seventh and final season.
Filmography [edit]
- WarGames (1983) - Jerry
- The Protector (1985)
- Hiding Out (1987)
- Black Rain (1989) - Oliver
- Far From Home (1989) - TV Preacher
- Sea of Love (1989) - Lieutenant
- Law & Order (TV) - Prescription For Death (1990)
- Presumed Innocent (1990) - Det. Lipranzer
- Green Card (1990)
- L.A. Law (1990–1994) - Tommy Mullaney
- Forget Paris (1995) - Jack
- The Rock (1996) - FBI director James Womack
- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (voice)(VG)(1996)
- Cop Land (1997) - Det. Leo Crasky
- The Negotiator (1998) - Police Chief Al Travis
- Twilight (1998) - Capt. Phil Egan
- The West Wing (TV)(1999–2006) - Leo McGarry
- Ravenous (1999) - Gen. Slauson
Footnotes [edit]
- ^ a b Lee, Jennifer. " Obituary: John Spencer, 'West Wing' actor", International Herald Tribune, December 19, 2005. Accessed June 9, 2007
- ^ John Spencer Biography (1946-)
- ^ See interview quoted in his Ukrainian Weekly obituary (link in the references section).
- ^ October 16, 2004 Interview with John Spencer, Tavis Smiley Show
- ^ Browse by Cemetery: Laurel Grove Memorial Park, Find a Grave. Accessed June 9, 2007.
- ^ The West Wing, Episode No. 112, "The Birnam Wood," written by John Welles.
- "Obituary: John Spencer, 58, actor on The West Wing". The Ukrainian Weekly. January 1 2006. p. 4. Retrieved April 1 2013.
External links [edit]
- "Actor John Spencer has died". Associated Press. December 16, 2005.
- John Spencer at the Internet Movie Database
- "John Spencer, 58, TV Actor Starring on 'The West Wing,' Dies". The New York Times. December 17, 2005.
- October 16, 2004 Interview with John Spencer, Tavis Smiley Show
- John Spencer at Find a Grave
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- 1946 births
- 2005 deaths
- American stage actors
- People from Paterson, New Jersey
- Actors from New Jersey
- American people of Irish descent
- American people of Rusyn descent
- American television actors
- Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- Emmy Award winners
- Fairleigh Dickinson University alumni
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
- 20th-century American actors
- 21st-century American actors
