Jack Weston; Film and Stage Actor

Jack Weston, wide-ranging character actor known for comedic roles on Broadway, television and motion pictures and also well-remembered as a villain, particularly for stalking a blind Audrey Hepburn in the film “Wait Until Dark,” has died. He was 71.

Weston, who made his film debut in 1960 in “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” died Friday in a New York hospital of lymphoma.

His stage successes included leading roles in Neil Simon’s “California Suite” and in Terrence McNally’s “The Ritz,” which he repeated in the film version.

When he appeared as the portly protagonist of Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” in 1971 at what is now Los Angeles’ Doolittle Theater, a Times critic wrote: “This is a funny guy, ready with the slapstick when needed but even better at showing you the thin timid man that is supposed to exist in every hearty fat one.”

The son of a Cleveland shoe repairman, Weston started acting at age 10 after a teacher recommended that the ne’er-do-well student study at the Cleveland Playhouse.

After serving as an Army machine-gunner and USO performer in Italy during World War II, Weston tackled New York. Waiting for parts, he supported himself as a dishwasher, postal clerk and elevator operator.

“I said then,” he told The Times in 1976, “if somebody would give me $80 a week for life and just let me act, that’s all I’d ever ask.”

Eventually, Weston worked on Broadway in “South Pacific” and in early East Coast television. He and his actress wife Marge Redmond, from whom he was later divorced, left their jobs in “Bells Are Ringing” in 1958 and drove to Hollywood.

On his second day in town, Weston won his breakthrough role in “Daisies,” playing a cab driver trying to interest David Niven in his musical version of the Bible.

He remained in Los Angeles for 18 years.

Among Weston’s films were “It’s Only Money,” “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Cactus Flower,” “The Four Seasons,” “High Road to China,” “Dirty Dancing” and “Ishtar.”

He enjoyed playing varied roles, once telling The Times: “I look at the camera when I work and say, I love you, you’re responsible for all the joy in my young life, and I thank you very much. Just let me make movies until the day I die.”

Weston is survived by his current wife, Laurie Gilkes; a stepdaughter, Amy, of New York, and his brother, Sam, of Los Angeles.