Jay North, the former child actor best known for starring in the CBS sitcom Dennis the Menace, has died. He was 73.
Laurie Jacobson, a longtime friend of North’s, confirmed the news to The New York Times. He died Sunday (April 6) in his Florida home from colorectal cancer.
North began his television acting career at the young age of five on The Engineer Bill Show before soon landing roles in Wanted: Dead or Alive, 77 Sunset Strip, and more.
But North was soon chosen from over 500 children who auditioned for Dennis the Menace, landing the role that would define his career, per IMDb. Based on the comic strip by creator Hank Ketcham, Dennis the Menace followed a well-meaning but troublesome child who terrorized his neighborhood. Herbert Anderson and Gloria Henry starred as his parents while Joseph Kearns played his exasperated neighbor. The sitcom lasted from 1959 to 1963 for 146 episodes.
The former child star was candid about the unfortunate experience he had on the show, despite the fame it brought him.
Kearns died in 1962 during filming and was later replaced by Gale Gordon. But North said the loss greatly impacted him.
“Between the pressures of the business and Joe’s dying, I became very serious, very morbid and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
He also revealed in a 1993 interview with The Los Angeles Daily News (per The New York Times) that his aunt and uncle, who were his caretakers while he starred on the show, were emotionally and physically abusive toward him. North expressed that it was time to come to terms with the life-defining experience of leading the hit series.
“I’m finally starting a new life and burying Dennis Mitchell,” Mr. North said in the Daily News interview. “I need very badly again to be Jay North.”
After Dennis the Menace went off the air in 1963, North’s television career continued with appearances in Wagon Train, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., My Three Sons, and more. He also starred in the 1966 family adventure Maya which later inspired a short-lived television series from 1967 to 1968.
North later turned to voice acting, with roles in Arabian Knights, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.
North also enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1977 and was honorably discharged in 1979. He later worked as an officer in the Florida Department of Corrections after moving to Lake Butler.
The final role of his career was playing himself in the 2003 David Spade comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, in which Spade starred as a former child actor who tries to recreate the childhood he never had.
He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Hackney.