John Davis Chandler(1935-2010)

Character actor John Davis Chandler was born on January 28, 1935, in Hinton, West Virginia. He was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Tall and thin, with fair hair, piercing blue eyes, a pale complexion and a nasal, whiny voice, Chandler specialized in portraying mean, neurotic and dangerous villains. He made an impressive film debut in his sole starring part as the titular sniveling, psychotic, homicidal weasel gangster in Le Maniaque à la mitraillette (1961). He acted in a trio of Westerns for director Sam Peckinpah, and is especially memorable (and frightening) as the creepy Jimmy Hammond in the magnificent Coups de feu dans la Sierra (1962). He was excellent as vicious punk Arthur Reardon in Le temps du châtiment (1961). He made an effectively loathsome appearance as a vile bushwhacker in the supremely spooky horror-western Chikara (1977) and had a nice bit as a bounty hunter in Clint Eastwood's terrific Josey Wales hors-la-loi (1976). He even played a good guy--of sorts--in Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965).

Chandler popped up in three entertaining drive-in exploitation features for director William Grefé: at his wacky best as the crazed, doped-up Acid in The Hooked Generation (1968), a foul shark poacher in the fun Les Dents de la mer (1975) copy Les Mâchoires infernales (1976) and an evil pot farmer in Whiskey Mountain (1977). Among the many TV shows John did guest spots on are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Chicago Hope, la vie à tout prix (1994) Urgences (1994), Simon et Simon (1981), Rick Hunter (1984), Arabesque (1984), Capitaine Furillo (1981), Hooker (1982), L'île fantastique (1977), L'incroyable Hulk (1977), Sergent Anderson (1974), Gunsmoke (1955), Adam-12 (1968), Le fugitif (1963), Combat! (1962), L'homme à la carabine (1958), Route 66 (1960) and Le Virginien (1962). In real life he was an avid practitioner of yoga. Chandler died at age 75 on February 16, 2010 in Toluca Lake, California.