Jack Betts, who is well-known for his role in ‘Spider-Man’ (2002) and featuring in Spaghetti Western films, has died at the age of 96.
Betts’ nephew, Dean Sullivan, told The Hollywood Reporterthat the actor passed away on Thursday in his sleep at his house in California.
Betts was born in April 11, 1929, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was raised in Miami, where he later studied theater at the University of Miami. Following his studies, he moved to New York City and made his Broadway debut in ‘Richard III’ in 1953.
He continued to grow as an actor by joining The Actors Studio. In 1959, he made his film debut in the Canadian thriller ‘The Bloody Brood’.
He then started appearing on television as his career began to take off. From 1960 to 1962, he played Chris Devlin in the CBS mystery show ‘Checkmate’. Then, he went on to act in many soap operas, including ‘The Edge of Night’, ‘The Doctors’, ‘Another World’, ‘All My Children’, ‘Search for Tomorrow’, and ‘Guiding Light’.
In 1966, Betts appeared in his first spaghetti Western, ‘Sugar Colt’, playing as Dr. Tom Copper, a government special agent. He continued starring in Westerns until 1973. Spaghetti Western films are a type of Western film that was made primarily by Italian filmmakers during the 1960s and 1970s.
In Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ (2002), Betts played Henry Balkan, the chairman of Oscorp Technologies’ board, who fires Norman Osborn (played by Willem Dafoe).
Betts also appeared on many popular TV shows, including ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘The F.B.I.’, ‘It Takes a Thief’, ‘Friends’, ‘The Mentalist’, and ‘Monk’.
Betts lived with ‘Everybody Loves Raymond”’actress Doris Roberts before her death at age 90 in 2016. He is survived by his sister, Joan, as well as his nieces, Lynee and Gail, and his nephew.