Trivia

His death was the result of a brawl in a parking lot outside a Winchell's Donuts store at 438 Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena near his apartment building during the early morning hours of December 29, 1996. Later that day at around 12 noon, he lunched with Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case at a local restaurant. According to them, Nance had a visible "crescent shaped bruise" under his right eye and when they asked him how he got it, he told them the story about the fight by first quoting: "I told off some homeless kids. I guess I got what I deserved." Nance claimed that at around 5:00 am, he got into a fistfight with two dark-haired young men who he referred to as "long-haired hippies" or "homeless crack-heads" in the parking lot outside the donut store while waiting for it to open. According to Nance, "two homeless bums" walked up to him and asked him for spare change. Nance refused to give them any money by mouthing off to them and saying: "get a job and a haircut", and a brawl ensued where Nance received several punches to his face during the fight as he was knocked down to the ground. There were no witnesses to the incident and it remains unclear if Nance had been drinking during that morning or who threw the first punch. He soon went home from the restaurant, complaining of a headache. However, the head injuries he received caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death the following morning over 24 hours later after receiving the injuries. Nance died alone in his apartment. His dead body, clad in a robe and pajamas, was discovered on the bathroom floor by Bulgarini who checked up at around noon on December 30. An autopsy revealed that the actor's blood alcohol level was .24 percent at the time of his death. The men involved in the brawl that led to Nance's death have never been arrested or identified. The police are treating Nance's death as a "cold case".

His second wife, Kelly Van Dyke, aka Nancee Kelly, committed suicide by hanging on November 17, 1991. According to his younger brother Richard Nance, Jack, who was in Bass Lake, California, filming Meatballs 4 at the time, attempted to console her on the phone as she threatened suicide. A lightning storm knocked out the phones in Oregon, subsequently taking over 45 minutes for Nance and the director, Bobby Logan, to find a deputy sheriff who contacted Los Angeles police and the apartment manager. They broke into the cabin and found that she had hanged herself.

Appeared in Suicidal Tendencies' video for the song, "Institutionalized".

Up to the last moment, he was considered for the lead in Le lauréat (1967), the part that went to Dustin Hoffman .

Nephew-in-law of Dick Van Dyke.

Goes by his middle name John in Eraserhead (1977) and by the stage name Jack for the rest of his career.

Suffered from alcoholism most of his adult life and was in an AA recovery group off-and-on for over 10 years prior to his death.

Despite already being a well-established and busy mainstream actor, for some reason he appeared in Old Fashioned Spankings (1991), hardcore "spanking video". As of 2016 he's allegedly the only mainstream actor to do so.

Suffered from two minor strokes 18 months before he died.

Made a final, posthumous appearance in Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), over twenty years after his death, although this was re-used footage of his first scene in the pilot episode.

Got into a major car accident during the filming of one of his last movies, Little Witches (1996), in April 1996 where he suffered an injured left knee that meant he had to walk with a cane for the remainder of his life.

Son-in-law of Jerry Van Dyke.

Widower of Kelly Van Dyke.

Attended South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas, Texas.