Noah Beery Jr.; Film, TV Character Actor

Veteran character actor Noah Beery Jr., best known as the genial, folksy father of private detective Jim Rockford on television’s “The Rockford Files,” died Tuesday, a family spokesman said. He was 81.

Beery, who had a 60-year film and television career, was born into a family of great Hollywood character actors. He had been in poor health in recent years after a stroke in the mid-1980s, said Linda Fowler, a family friend.

“His wife, Lisa, was at his side,” said Fowler, who added that the actor died about 7:30 p.m. at his ranch 80 miles north of Los Angeles.

Beery became best known for his role in the 1974-1980 “Rockford” detective series that featured James Garner as the likable, hard-luck investigator of the series name. Beery played a retired trucker known affectionately as “Rocky.”

Beery built a career playing a sidekick and pal, first in the movies and later in television. He appeared as a doughboy friend of Gary Cooper in “Sergeant York” in 1941, a classic film biography about one of America’s greatest World War I heroes.

He worked steadily in dozens of Westerns and serials.

Television work eventually became a staple for him. He appeared in such 1950s series as “Riverboat” and “Circus Boy.” In the role of Joey the Clown, Beery played a father figure to a very young Mickey Dolenz, who later went on to become one of the Monkees singing group.

In 1983, Beery had a supporting role with Burt Reynolds in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

Beery was the son of Hollywood character actor Noah Beery Sr. and the nephew of Wallace Beery, a versatile actor who won the Academy Award for his role in 1931’s “The Champ.”

Born Aug. 10, 1913, in New York City, Noah Jr. made his screen debut as a child in the 1920 silent film “The Mark of Zorro,” which starred his father and Douglas Fairbanks. He toured with his father in stock theater companies and between appearances was educated at military academies.

The younger Beery was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for his work on “The Rockford Files.”

His film credits include the 1940 version of John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” and the 1960 courtroom drama “Inherit the Wind.”

His survivors include two daughters, Muffett and Melissa, a son, Buck, and three stepchildren, Page, Sean and Lorena. Funeral plans were pending.