H.B. Councilman Kelly Suffers Heart Attack

City Councilman Jack Kelly suffered a heart attack Tuesday and is in the intensive care unit of Humana Hospital-Huntington Beach, city officials said Wednesday.

Kelly, 64, publisher of the weekly Huntington Beach News and a former television and movie actor, was stricken Tuesday evening. Rene Fox, the hospital’s director of public relations, said Kelly was in stable condition Wednesday.

Deputy city administrator Richard Barnardsaid Kelly talked to him on the telephone early Wednesday morning.

“He wanted to tell where he was and that he was OK,” Barnard said.

Councilman Don MacAllister said he had heard from city officials that Kelly had “some sort of blood clot that may have triggered a mild heart attack.”

“I understand he is having all kinds of tests to find out what is wrong with him,” MacAllister said.

Councilman Peter M. Green said Kelly appeared to be in pain at Monday night’s council meeting. “When he got up to walk to the back room, it seemed like each step was torture,” Green said.

“He did not look well and appeared to be quite tired,” Green said. “Any physical exertion seemed like a strain.”

Kelly, an avid golfer, served on the City Council from 1980 to 1988 before he was forced from office by a two-term limit. He was reelected in 1990 after sitting out two years.

He appeared in a number of movies and television shows and is best known for starring opposite James Garner in the “Maverick” television series.