Whitney Rydbeck, ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘M*A*S*H’ Actor, Dead at 79

Whitney Rydbeck, the actor and mime best known for his role in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, has died. Rydbeck passed away of complications from cancer while in hospice in Chatsworth, California on Monday, July 15, longtime friend and Jason Lives director Tom McLoughlin confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter and Bloody Disgusting. He 79.

“I’m heartbroken to share this past Monday night we lost the wonderfully talented physical comedian/actor Whitney Rydbeck,” McLoughlin, who also shared a tribute on social media, said. “He’s truly the kindest, heartfelt, and lovable person I have known. Seeing him struggling with cancer this past year and a half has been beyond heartbreaking. A year ago he appeared on stage (with almost all the Jason Lives cast) at a sold out screening for the American Cinematique. Despite his condition, he made the fans laugh with his stories and antics… I’m going to miss Whitney in so many ways. He truly knew how to make people happy. That was his gift. Our loss is Heavens’s Gain.”

Born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1945, Rydbeck made his onscreen debut on a 1970 episode of Nanny and the Professor before he and McLoughlin portrayed silent robots in the year 2173 in Woody Allen’s Sleeper (1973). Over the next decade, the actor appeared in hit shows like The Brady Bunch, Monster Squad and M*A*S*H, where he portrayed Sergeant “Hondo” McKee in Season 8, as well as films such as Love at First Bite, Rocky II and Steven Spielberg’s 1941, per his IMDb profile.

In 1986, he landed what would become one of his most memorable roles when he starred in Jason Lives, the sixth installment in the iconic horror franchise. In the 1986 film, Rydbeck starred as Roy, the nerdy businessman and paintball player who fires shots at Jason Voorhees before ultimately being killed. McLoughlin said he “specifically wrote the Roy part in Jason Lives for him knowing his unique talent… His comic performance is still making audiences and fans laugh almost 40 years later.”

That same decade, the actor cemented another memorable role in his career when he starred alongside Tony Reitano as crash test dummies Larry and Vince in the “You Could Learn a Lot From a Dummy” seatbelt PSAs in the 1980s and 1990s. In the campaign, Rydbeck and Reitano fail to put on their seatbelts and are bounced around in car accidents. The PSAs ended with the line “You could learn a lot from a dummy. Buckle your safety belt.” Speaking with The Washington Post in 2010, Rydbeck revealed that required 45 minutes of getting into costume, and the masks didn’t allow the actors to hear, see, or talk. One of Rydbeck’s original outfits ended up in the Smithsonian.

Rydbeck’s other credits include Lassie, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Murder, She Wrote, 3rd Rock from the Sun, 7th Heaven, Party of Five, and Scrubs, among others. More recently, he taught drama at Pasadena City College. Rydbeck is survived by his longtime partner, Claire.