Whitney Rydbeck, the actor and mime who played the last of the paintball victims in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI and one of the original crash-test dummies from an iconic public service campaign that promoted seat belt use, has died. He was 79.
Rydbeck died Monday of complications from prostate cancer while in hospice care in Chatsworth, Calif., his longtime friend Tommy McLoughlin, the director of Jason livessaid The Hollywood Reporter.
“We have lost not only a truly funny comedian and actor… but also one of the most generous human beings I have ever known,” McLoughlin wrote in an Instagram tribute.
The great Rydbeck appeared on dozens of television shows during his storied career, from The Brady Gang, Phyllis, MASH POTATOES, Cagney and Lacey And Highway to Heaven has Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sisters, To live alone, Group of five And Scrubs.
On the fifth Friday 13 film, released in 1986, Rydbeck impressed as the comically nerdy Roy, who, while wearing goggles over his regular glasses Meet the masked villain in the woods during a corporate paintball game. He tries to escape, but he doesn’t survive.
Like Jason, Rydbeck and Tony Reitano also donned masks, not for a movie but to play crash-test dummies Larry and Vince, respectively. Because they were foolish enough not to strap themselves in, they bounced around in car crashes and sustained a lot of damage — all while providing researchers with data on how passengers can escape injury.
The series of burlesque commercials, which began in 1985, ended with the following sentence: “You could learn a lot from a model.”
Whitney Wilbert Rydbeck was born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1945. He attended Pasadena High School, Pasadena City College and then Cal State Fullerton, where he studied theater.
In the early 1970s, he and McLoughlin were members of the Richmond Shepard Mime Troupe and the LA Mime Company, which McLoughlin founded. “He was the perfect guy for it because he was very good at physical comedy,” McLoughlin noted.
Rydbeck made his screen debut in a 1970 episode Nanny and the teacher before he and McLoughlin put their mime skills to work for silent robots in the year 2173 in Woody Allen’s film Sleeper (1973).
Before the end of the decade, Rydbeck would also appear in the film starring George Hamilton. Love at first bite (1979), directed by Sylvester Stallone Rocky II (1979) and Steven Spielberg 1941 (1979).
In 1979, he played a taxi driver who discovers a robot sent to Earth from another planet on the NBC children’s show. Whitney and the Robot.
His CV also included films Olivier & Company (1988) and A very Brady sequel (1996) and TV shows Kid, To change, 7th heaven, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century And The Crazy People of Deep Space.
Most recently, he taught theater at Pasadena City College. He is survived by his girlfriend of 10 years, Claire.
Related Posts
Kylie Jenner Opens Up About Her Friendship With Jordyn Woods After Cheating Scandal
Kylie Jenner Opens Up About Her Friendship With Jordyn Woods After Cheating Scandal Nearly a year after publicly announcing their rekindled friendship, Kylie Jenner spoke about his bond with Jordyn Woods. In July last year, Jordyn and Kylie were photographed leaving a popular sushi restaurant in Los Angeles. It was the first time they were […]
Claude Lelouch to receive Cartier Filmmaker Award in Venice
French director Claude Lelouch (A man and a woman, Good year, The Beautiful Story) will be honored at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, a prize dedicated to a “personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.” Lelouch will receive the award on […]
Kevin Costner talks directing for the first time in 20 years with ‘Horizon’
Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Director in 1991, Kevin Costner’s film Horizon: an American saga — Chapter 1 is only the fourth film the star has directed, and the first time he has stepped behind the camera in over 20 years. Costner won an Oscar for his first film Dance with wolveswhich he […]