BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Jay North, a child actor who rose to fame during the 1960s as the star of “Dennis the Menace,” died at his Lake Butler home on Sunday, April 6, from colon cancer. He was 71.
North began his career in commercials, eventually appearing on the Ford Show, a variety program starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. With subsequent roles on shows like “77 Sunset Strip” and “The Milton Berle Show, North built a reputation for learning lines fast.
‘He owned the role’
In 1959, the 8-year-old landed the role that would change his life. North taped 146 episodes of “Dennis the Menace.” After four seasons, he began to age out of the role, and the actor who played Mr. Wilson, his nemesis, died, resulting in the program’s cancelation.
North said his success on the sitcom was both a blessing and curse because the fame he achieved as a wholesome but mischievous child left him typecast in that role.
His success and notoriety in the role also doomed actors who followed in his footsteps, such as Mason Gamble, who portrayed Dennis in a 1993 movie.
“He gave Dennis motion and music,” wrote Los Angeles Times Television Critic Robert Lloyd of North. “The sound of his ‘Hellll-o, Mr. Wilson’ (and ‘Good old Mr. Wilson’ and ‘Gee, thanks, Mr. Wilson’) still lives in my ear. But he radiated a brightness and, well, menace distinct from any TV child actor of his time; he owned the role, while it fit him, and as much as anyone or anything, made the series a hit.”
Just wanted to be a regular guy
After a couple of failed marriages, experiencing the 1960s counterculture with fellow child star Jerry Mathis of “Leave it to Beaver,” and a stint in the Navy, North said he found peace and solitude in Union County.
“I just wanted to be a regular guy,” he told the Altrusa Club of Lake City in 2000. “I just wanted to be with regular people.”
North landed in Union County in the mid-1980s when moving to Lake Butler with his new wife and her three children from a previous marriage. The family settled near the city’s Lakeside Park. He told the Lake City Reporter he intended to become a correctional officer.
In the 2000 Lake City speech, North said life as a child actor in the 1950s was far from glamorous.
“It’s amazing that children are able to survive in Hollywood,” he told the club. “I’m a survivor.”
The then 48-year-old described forced smiles, memorizing a 40-page script, and being denied the financial rewards of his work.
Advocates for child actors
After his acting career concluded, North teamed up with another child star, Paul Peterson of the “Donna Reed Show,” to advocate for changes in the law that would save others from the abuses they endured.
Around the same time North addressed the Altrusians, California passed child actor reforms that specified that child actors’ earnings are the property of the performers, not their parents.
The legislation also required producers to deposit earnings into the actors’ bank accounts promptly, addressing delays, sometimes months, before child actors received their earnings.
The child of a single mother, North harbored the abuse he received as a child actor, even after channeling that mistreatment into his crusade for better treatment of others who followed his career path.
He told the Lake City newspaper that he might write a book about his childhood career, but not while his mother was still alive.
