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James Handy, the familiar character actor you catch in a blink—pouring a drink in Top Gun: Maverick or handling an unruly pest in Jumanji—was fatally stabbed Wednesday morning in Tarzana, Los Angeles. He was 81.
Los Angeles police say officers responded around 9:30 a.m. to a radio call in the 19200 block of Erwin Street. A 911 caller reportedly claimed he had killed a man. When officers arrived they found Handy unconscious in the front yard with a stab wound to the chest; paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The suspect, identified as 44-year-old Michael Gledhill, lives at the residence with his mother, who authorities say was Handy’s girlfriend. Officers say the suspect flagged down responding police and told them he was the person they were looking for. Gledhill was arrested and booked on a murder charge, with bail set at $2 million.
Detectives say they believe this was an isolated incident and that there is no apparent danger to the public at this time.
Handy’s face was one of those quiet constants in Hollywood: rarely the lead, often the small, telling presence that makes a scene land. His résumé stretches from 1977’s Taps to recent work in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. He appears as the doctor who treated Hugh Jackman in Logan (2017), the exterminator in 1995’s Jumanji, and had roles in Arachnophobia, The Rocketeer, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Verdict and K-9. On television he turned up repeatedly — eight episodes as Arthur Devlin on Alias and recurring parts on Melrose Place and NYPD Blue among them.
A representative confirmed Handy’s death, describing the news as deeply saddening. Questions linger, as they do after any sudden loss: about the people close to the victim, the circumstances that led here, and how a lifetime of small-screen moments can be erased in an instant.
He began his screen career in the late 1970s and, in dozens of brief but memorable beats, built a body of work that will continue to appear in credits and streaming queues. His performances remain; watch them and you’ll find him there, in the margins but never invisible.
Source: variety
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