Jack Betts, a versatile actor whose career spanned stage and screen, from Shakespearean theater to cult classic Spaghetti Westerns and major Hollywood films, has sadly died at the age of 96.
Betts passed away peacefully in his sleep on Thursday at his home in Los Osos, California, his nephew Dean Sullivan confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Miami, Florida, in 1929, Betts built a remarkable career across decades and genres.
One of his most recognized roles came in 2002 when he played Henry Balkan in Spider-Man alongside Tobey Maguire.
He also appeared in Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997), and made guest appearances on hit TV series including Seinfeld, Frasier, Power Rangers, and Friends, where he played Tom in the 2001 episode 'The One with Joey’s New Brain'.
Betts began his career on Broadway with a role in Richard III and later starred as Dracula from 1977 to 1980. But it was his work in Spaghetti Westerns under the pseudonym Hunt Powers that made him a staple of European cinema.
He first played the character in Franco Giraldi’s Sugar Colt (1966), a part he once admitted he "bluffed his way into." Betts went on to star in 12 Westerns through 1972, though he expressed regret in later years that the films never aired in the U.S. or Canada.
“In the hotel next to mine was Clint Eastwood,” Betts recalled in a 2021 interview on The Dev Show. “He’d go up to his mountain and do his Western, and I’d go up to my mountain and do mine. But while his films had worldwide distribution, mine were shown everywhere except Canada and America.”
Betts’ final film role came in 2018’s D-Railed, where he portrayed The Conductor.
Offscreen, Betts shared a deep bond with actress Doris Roberts of Everybody Loves Raymond. The two were close friends, and after Roberts invited him to move from New York, they shared a home in the Hollywood Hills for years. He frequently accompanied her to events from the late 1980s until her passing in 2016. The pair even appeared together in a 1999 episode of Raymond. After her death, Betts called their friendship “one of the great joys” of his life, saying they remained “best friends to the very end.”
Tributes to Betts have poured in across social media following news of his passing.
“RIP to a legend. Jack Betts brought so much to the screen, from gritty westerns to comic book charm,” one fan wrote on X.
Another added: “Well shoot, another Hollywood gunslinger rides into the sunset. Tips hat Jack Betts was one of those actors who could make even a B-movie feel like an A-list production.”
Betts is survived by his sister Joan, who is set to celebrate her 100th birthday this November, as well as his nieces Lynne and Gail, and his nephew Dean.