Roy Jenson, 80; football player became actor who often portrayed bad guys

Roy Jenson, 80, a former UCLA football player known for portraying menacing bad guys in the movies, most notably in “Chinatown,” died of cancer April 24 at his home in Los Angeles, said his son, Sasha.

While playing professional football in Canada, Jenson was recruited as a stunt double for “River of No Return” (1954) with Robert Mitchum. Jenson soon returned to Los Angeles to do stunt work and mainly took acting roles after appearing in the Paul Newman film “Harper” (1966).

In “Chinatown” (1974), Jenson plays Roman Polanski’s ominous sidekick who holds Jack Nicholson while Polanski cuts Nicholson’s nose with a knife.

Jenson appeared in more than 170 films and television shows. His films include “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Way We Were” (1973) and “Every Which Way but Loose” (1978). On television, he had recurring roles in the CBS series “Mannix” and “Gunsmoke.”

He was born in 1927 in Calgary, Canada, and moved to Los Angeles as a child. During World War II, he joined the Navy at 17 and served on a destroyer in the Pacific.

At UCLA, Jenson earned a bachelor’s degree in geography in 1951, then played football for nine years for the Calgary Stampeders and the B.C. Lions in Canada.