Richard Jaeckel; Character Actor in Films, on TV

Richard Jaeckel, a veteran character actor remembered for his supporting roles in war films and Westerns, has died at age 70.

Jaeckel, who played a churlish sergeant in “The Dirty Dozen,” died Saturday night at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Born in suburban New York, Richard Hanley Jaeckel moved to Hollywood with his family in the 1940s. Columnist Louella Parsons, a friend of the youth’s mother, got him a job in the mail room at 20th Century-Fox studios.

The baby-faced actor’s film career began when he was plucked out of the mail room to fill a role as a callow Marine private in the 1943 film “Guadalcanal Diary.”

Jaeckel was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in “Sometimes a Great Notion.”

Jaeckel played the surviving sergeant in made-for-television sequels of “The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission” beginning in 1985.

He worked frequently in television, notably as cowboy scout Tony Gentry in “Frontier Circus” in 1962, as Lt. Pete McNeil in “Banyon” in 1972, as firefighter Hank Myers in “Firehouse” in 1972, and in a rare comedic role as Maj. Hawkins in “At Ease” in 1983.

Among Jaeckel’s other films were “Battleground,” “Sands of Iwo Jima,” “Gunfighter,” “Come Back, Little Sheba,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Four for Texas,” “Devil’s Brigade,” “Red Pony,” “Starman,” “Delta Force 2: Operation” and “King of the Kickboxers.”

In his private life, Jaeckel was a popular Little League coach in West Los Angeles for many years.

He served in the Navy from 1944 to 1948.