Jock Mahoney

Birthday: 1919-02-07
Deathday: 1989-12-14
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney, known professionally as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in two Western television series, The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer. He played Tarzan in two feature films and was associated in various capacities with several other Tarzan productions. He was sometimes credited as Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney.

Jock entered the University of Iowa in Iowa City and excelled at swimming and diving, but dropped out to enlist in the United States Marine Corps when World War II began. He served as a pilot, flight instructor, and war correspondent. After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Mahoney moved to Los Angeles, and for a time was a horse breeder. However, he soon became a movie stuntman, doubling for Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne. Most of Mahoney's films of the late 1940s and early 1950s were produced by Columbia Pictures. Like many Columbia contract players, Mahoney worked in the studio's two-reel comedies. Beginning in 1947, he starred with the Three Stooges in their films Out West, Squareheads of the Round Table (and its remake, Knutzy Knights), Fuelin' Around, and Punchy Cowpunchers.

Beginning in 1950, Columbia management gave him starring roles in adventure serials. Mahoney contributed so much to this series that he was awarded featured billing and major supporting roles as well, first as villains and then as sympathetic characters. By 1952 Columbia was billing him as Jack Mahoney. Cowboy star Gene Autry, then working at Columbia, hired Mahoney to star in a television series. Autry's Flying A Productions filmed 79 half-hour episodes of the syndicated The Range Rider from 1951 to 1953.

For the 1958 television season, he starred in the somewhat Western Yancy Derringer series for 34 episodes, which aired on CBS. Yancy Derringer was a gentleman adventurer living in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the American Civil War. He had a Pawnee Indian companion named Pahoo Katchewa ("Wolf Who Stands in Water"), who did not speak, played by X Brands. Pahoo had saved the life of Derringer, and thereafter was responsible for Derringer's life.

In 1962, Mahoney became the 13th actor to portray Tarzan when he appeared in Tarzan Goes to India, shot on location in India. A year later, he again played the role in Tarzan's Three Challenges, shot in Thailand. Dysentery and dengue fever plagued Mahoney during the shoot in the Thai jungles, and he plummeted to 175 pounds. He needed a year and a half to regain his health. Owing to his health problems and the fact that producer Weintraub had decided to go for a "younger look" for the apeman, his contract was mutually dissolved. In the 1980s, Mahoney made guest appearances on the television series B. J. and the Bear and The Fall Guy. During the final years of his life, he was a popular guest at film conventions and autograph shows.

Mahoney died of a second stroke at age 70, two days after being involved in an automobile accident in Bremerton, Washington. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

Credits

Year Title Character
1973-10-01 The Bad Bunch Sgt. Berry
1970-07-03 Tarzan's Deadly Silence The Colonel
1968-06-01 Bandolero! Stoner
1967-11-22 The Glory Stompers Smiley
1965-05-10 Runaway Girl Randy Minola
1964-11-01 Moro Witch Doctor Jefferson Stark
1964-03-07 The Walls of Hell Lt. Jim Sorenson
1963-04-11 Marine Battleground Nick Rawlins
1963-03-03 California Don Michael O'Casey
1963-01-29 Tarzan's Three Challenges Tarzan
1962-07-01 Tarzan Goes to India Tarzan
1961-12-31 Three Blondes In His Life Duke Wallace
1960-07-20 Tarzan the Magnificent Coy Banton
1958-10-01 Money, Women and Guns 'Silver' Ward Hogan
1958-07-09 A Time to Love and a Time to Die Immerman
1958-07-01 The Last of the Fast Guns Brad Ellison
1957-11-01 Slim Carter Slim Carter (Hugh Mack)
1957-10-27 Joe Dakota The Stranger
1957-10-15 The Land Unknown Commander Harold 'Alan' Roberts
1957-02-14 Battle Hymn Maj. Frank Moore
1956-10-01 Showdown at Abilene Jim Trask
1956-09-01 I've Lived Before John Bolan / Lt. Peter Stevens
1956-08-16 Away All Boats
1956-08-16 Away All Boats Alvick
1956-05-02 A Day of Fury Marshal Allan Burnett
1954-10-26 Overland Pacific Ross Granger
1954-09-02 Knutzy Knights Cedric the Blacksmith
1954-04-14 Gunfighters of the Northwest Joe Ward
1952-08-19 The Kid from Broken Gun Jack Mahoney
1952-07-12 Junction City Jack Mahoney
1952-06-14 The Rough, Tough West Big Jack Mahoney
1952-04-19 Laramie Mountains Swift Eagle
1952-02-28 The Hawk of Wild River Jack Mahoney
1952-01-31 Smoky Canyon Jack Mahoney
1951-12-15 Pecos River Jack Mahoney
1951-08-13 The Lady and the Bandit Tavern Troublemaker
1951-06-03 The Texas Rangers Duke Fisher
1951-05-31 Roar of the Iron Horse Jim Grant
1951-04-01 Santa Fe Crake
1950-12-29 Frontier Outpost Lieutenant Peck (uncredited)
1950-12-01 Lightning Guns Rob Saunders
1950-10-22 The Kangaroo Kid Tex Kinnane
1950-06-01 Hoedown Stoney Rhodes
1950-06-01 Texas Dynamo Bill Beck
1950-05-19 Cow Town Tod Jeffreys
1950-04-06 Cody of the Pony Express Jim Archer
1950-01-11 The Nevadan Sandy
1950-01-05 Punchy Cowpunchers Elmer
1949-11-24 Renegades of the Sage Lieutenant Hunter
1949-11-22 Horsemen of the Sierras Bill Grant
1949-10-19 Bandits of El Dorado Tim Starling (uncredited)
1949-07-01 Rim of the Canyon Pete Reagan
1949-06-05 The Blazing Trail Full-House Patterson
1949-05-27 The Doolins of Oklahoma Tulsa Jack Blake
1949-04-07 Fuelin' Around Guard
1948-03-04 Squareheads of the Round Table Cedric the Blacksmith
1947-07-03 The Stranger From Ponca City Henchman Tensleep (uncredited)
1947-04-24 Out West Arizona Kid
1946-12-10 The Fighting Frontiersman Waco (uncredited)
1946-10-23 Son of the Guardsman Captain Kenley (uncredited)