Character actor Jack Betts (sometimes billed under the Henry Willson-esque name Hunt Powers), died on June 19. He was 96. Betts made his Broadway debut in The Firstborn (1958), and would later appear in Sweet Bird of Youth and Dracula, and had a starring role in the short-lived Wally’s Café (1981). He made his film debut in a costarring role in the beatnik drama The Bloody Brood (1959), and—though he never became a star—went on to have a 60-year career, mostly playing businessmen or society types. Among his many vehicles were Bonanza, It Takes a Thief, Perry Mason, The Doctors, One Life to Live, Falling Down, Seinfeld, Gods and Monsters (playing Boris Karloff), Friends, Spider-Man, Monk, and My Name is Earl. He also made several spaghetti westerns. Betts attributed his long career to “Passion and ambition. I remember when I was 10 years old, my mother took me to see Wuthering Heights, and I saw Laurence Olivier on the screen. And I said to myself, ‘I will never do anything else in my life but that. I want to be an actor.’ That film changed my life.”
