James Handy, a veteran character actor who appeared in movies like Top Gun: Maverick, Arachnophobia, Jumanji, and many more, has died. He was 81 years old.
According to The New York Times, Handy was killed by a stabbing on Thursday night in Los Angeles. Michael Gledhill, the 44-year-old son of Handy’s girlfriend, has been arrested and faces a murder charge. Police say they became aware of the crime when they received a 911 call, wherein the caller said: “I am the son of man. I just killed the man of sin.” Police arrived at Handy’s house in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles where they found him unconscious on the lawn. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Gledhill is being held on a $2 million bail.
A representative for Handy confirmed “[with great sadness” that “the gentleman who was attacked and killed on Wednesday in Tarzana was the actor James Handy” in a statement to Variety.
After a couple of roles on television in the late 1970s, Handy’s film career began in 1981 with an appearance in Taps as the sheriff. From there, Handy appeared in films Hotshot, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Burglar, and Arachnophobia, in which he played Milton Briggs. In 1992, he appeared in two episodes of Quantum Leap as Ross Tyler, notably appearing in the episode “Temptation Eyes.” In the 1990s, he also made appearances in Murder, She Wrote, NYPD Blue, The X-Files, and portrayed the exterminator in Jumanji. His last credited role on IMDb is in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, in which he played Jimmy, a bartender. In a statement, his talent agent Pam Ellis-Evenas said, “I could not have asked for a more talented, humble or gracious client and friend than James Handy.”
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