Rick Jason (May 21, 1923 – October 16, 2000) was an American actor. Jason was born in New York City, and is probably most remembered for his role as 2nd Lt. Gil Hanley in the 1960s television drama Combat!.
An only child, Rick was expelled from several prep schools before graduating from Rhodes Preparatory School in Manhattan. He also served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II from 1943 to 1945.
After the War, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on the GI Bill, and held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. While in attendance at a New York play, he was spotted by Hume Cronyn, who then casted him in Now I Lay me Down to Sleep. The role earned Jason a Theater World Award and a Hollywood contract with Columbia Pictures.
Later on, MGM was searching for an actor to replace Fernando Lamas in the movie Sombrero gave the role to Jason, who was earlier released from Columbia Pictures. It was a success and it led to The Saracen Blade and This Is My Love.
Fox signed him for the male lead role in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts and later signed for a multi-picture contract. His first project was an adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus, which earned him critical acclaim. A string of good performances, both in films and on television, then followed. In 1958, Jason played the lead in The Fountain of Youth, an innovative half-hour unsold pilot written and directed by Orson Welles which won the Peabody Award (decades later, Jason would participate in a panel discussion of what it was like to work with Welles at the Museum of Television and Radio). Soon after, Jason received offers for TV series. He starred in 1960 as insurance investigator Robin Scott in The Case of the Dangerous Robin.
In 1962, he starred as Platoon Leader 2nd Lt. Gil Hanley on the TV series Combat!, probably his most memorable role. The show also starred Vic Morrow as Sgt. Chip Saunders and lasted for five seasons and 152 episodes. It was one of the longest-running and most popular World War II dramas on television.
After Combat!, Rick returned to theater. He also made films in Japan and Israel. In 1970 he took the lead in the pilot for Prudence and the Chief. His TV career went well in the '70s and '80s, when he appeared in shows like Matt Houston, Police Woman, Murder, She Wrote, Moonlighting, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island, Airwolf and Dallas. In 1973, he was a frequent character on The Young and the Restless.
After his retirement, he kept busy by doing voice-overs for commercials and wrote an autobiography called Scrapbooks of My Mind, published posthumously. In 2000, Jason attended a Combat! reunion in Las Vegas with fellow cast members. He died by his own hand (gunshot) later that same year on October 16, 2000.
External links
Scrapbooks of My Mind: A Hollywood Autobiography by Rick Jason
"Variety" obit, Nov. 10, 2000
Rick Jason at the Internet Movie Database
Rick Jason at Find A Grave
Persondata
NAME
Jason, Rick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
Jacobson, Richard
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Actor
DATE OF BIRTH
May 21, 1923(1923-05-21)
PLACE OF BIRTH
New York City, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
2000-10-16
PLACE OF DEATH
Moorpark, California, U.S.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Jason"
Categories: 1923 births | 2000 deaths | American film actors | American stage actors | American television actors | People from New York City
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This page was last modified on 7 September 2008, at 21:57.
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