Actor / Director Profile

Congenial actor Jack Mullaney was one of those gangly and goofy nice guy types who pervaded innocuous 1950s and '60s film and TV comedy. Usually a best buddy who seldom got the pretty coed, Jack's poor schmucks were the huggable, cleancut kind that every mother would want as a son. In minor film parts from 1957, he hung around the periphery of silly, youth-oriented fluff, appearing as Vincent Price's slow-thinking assistant Igor in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and Elvis Presley's klutzy sidekick in Tickle Me (1965). He was also featured in Presley's film Spinout (1966), but he and the film were met with little fanfare.TV sitcom work served the actor up much better as the sure-to-please bellhop on "The Ann Sothern Show" (1958) and accident-prone supply officer on "Ensign O'Toole" (1962). Neither part, however, was strong enough to propel him to comedy stardom. Jack's best showcases were as the bungling scientist on "My Living Doll" (1964) starring Robert Cummings and the genial astronaut who ends up in the Stone Age in "It's About Time" (1966) co-starring Frank Aletter, Imogene Coca, and Joe E. Ross. Jack's mode of comedy went out of style with the Vietnam Era and, despite a few glimpses of him in such 1970s films as Little Big Man (1970) and Where Does It Hurt? (1972), he couldn't sustain his career. Little was heard about Jack until news of his untimely death in 1982 at age 53. No cause was reported.