CINEFILER

Jock Mahoney

Born
February 7, 1919
Died
December 14, 1989
Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney, known professionally as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in two Western television series, The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer. He played Tarzan in two feature films and was associated in various capacities with several other Tarzan productions. He was sometimes credited as Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney. Jock entered the University of Iowa in Iowa City and excelled at swimming and diving, but dropped out to enlist in the United States Marine Corps when World War II began. He served as a pilot, flight instructor, and war correspondent. After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Mahoney moved to Los Angeles, and for a time was a horse breeder. However, he soon became a movie stuntman, doubling for Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne. Most of Mahoney's films of the late 1940s and early 1950s were produced by Columbia Pictures. Like many Columbia contract players, Mahoney worked in the studio's two-reel comedies. Beginning in 1947, he starred with the Three Stooges in their films Out West, Squareheads of the Round Table (and its remake, Knutzy Knights), Fuelin' Around, and Punchy Cowpunchers. Beginning in 1950, Columbia management gave him starring roles in adventure serials. Mahoney contributed so much to this series that he was awarded featured billing and major supporting roles as well, first as villains and then as sympathetic characters. By 1952 Columbia was billing him as Jack Mahoney. Cowboy star Gene Autry, then working at Columbia, hired Mahoney to star in a television series. Autry's Flying A Productions filmed 79 half-hour episodes of the syndicated The Range Rider from 1951 to 1953. For the 1958 television season, he starred in the somewhat Western Yancy Derringer series for 34 episodes, which aired on CBS. Yancy Derringer was a gentleman adventurer living in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the American Civil War. He had a Pawnee Indian companion named Pahoo Katchewa ("Wolf Who Stands in Water"), who did not speak, played by X Brands. Pahoo had saved the life of Derringer, and thereafter was responsible for Derringer's life. In 1962, Mahoney became the 13th actor to portray Tarzan when he appeared in Tarzan Goes to India, shot on location in India. A year later, he again played the role in Tarzan's Three Challenges, shot in Thailand. Dysentery and dengue fever plagued Mahoney during the shoot in the Thai jungles, and he plummeted to 175 pounds. He needed a year and a half to regain his health. Owing to his health problems and the fact that producer Weintraub had decided to go for a "younger look" for the apeman, his contract was mutually dissolved. In the 1980s, Mahoney made guest appearances on the television series B. J. and the Bear and The Fall Guy. During the final years of his life, he was a popular guest at film conventions and autograph shows. Mahoney died of a second stroke at age 70, two days after being involved in an automobile accident in Bremerton, Washington. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
Known For
Bandolero!
(1968)
Stoner
The Bad Bunch
(1973)
Sgt. Berry
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
(1958)
Immerman
Full Filmography
Acting
The Fighting Frontiersman
(1946)
Waco (uncredited)
Out West
(1947)
Arizona Kid
The Stranger From Ponca City
(1947)
Henchman Tensleep (uncredited)
Squareheads of the Round Table
(1948)
Cedric the Blacksmith
The Doolins of Oklahoma
(1949)
Tulsa Jack Blake
Fuelin' Around
(1949)
Guard
The Blazing Trail
(1949)
Full-House Patterson
Bandits of El Dorado
(1949)
Tim Starling (uncredited)
Renegades of the Sage
(1949)
Lieutenant Hunter
Horsemen of the Sierras
(1949)
Bill Grant
Rim of the Canyon
(1949)
Pete Reagan
The Kangaroo Kid
(1950)
Tex Kinnane
Punchy Cowpunchers
(1950)
Elmer
Hoedown
(1950)
Stoney Rhodes
The Nevadan
(1950)
Sandy
Texas Dynamo
(1950)
Bill Beck
Lightning Guns
(1950)
Rob Saunders
Cow Town
(1950)
Tod Jeffreys
Cody of the Pony Express
(1950)
Jim Archer
Frontier Outpost
(1950)
Lieutenant Peck (uncredited)
Pecos River
(1951)
Jack Mahoney
The Texas Rangers
(1951)
Duke Fisher
Roar of the Iron Horse
(1951)
Jim Grant
Santa Fe
(1951)
Crake
The Lady and the Bandit
(1951)
Tavern Troublemaker
The Rough, Tough West
(1952)
Big Jack Mahoney
The Kid from Broken Gun
(1952)
Jack Mahoney
The Hawk of Wild River
(1952)
Jack Mahoney
Smoky Canyon
(1952)
Jack Mahoney
Laramie Mountains
(1952)
Swift Eagle
Junction City
(1952)
Jack Mahoney
Knutzy Knights
(1954)
Cedric the Blacksmith
Overland Pacific
(1954)
Ross Granger
Gunfighters of the Northwest
(1954)
Joe Ward
Away All Boats
(1956)
Alvick
Showdown at Abilene
(1956)
Jim Trask
I've Lived Before
(1956)
John Bolan / Lt. Peter Stevens
A Day of Fury
(1956)
Marshal Allan Burnett
The Land Unknown
(1957)
Commander Harold 'Alan' Roberts
Battle Hymn
(1957)
Maj. Frank Moore
Joe Dakota
(1957)
The Stranger
Slim Carter
(1957)
Slim Carter (Hugh Mack)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
(1958)
Immerman
Money, Women and Guns
(1958)
'Silver' Ward Hogan
The Last of the Fast Guns
(1958)
Brad Ellison
Tarzan the Magnificent
(1960)
Coy Banton
Three Blondes In His Life
(1961)
Duke Wallace
Tarzan Goes to India
(1962)
Tarzan
Tarzan's Three Challenges
(1963)
Tarzan
The Marines Who Never Returned
(1963)
Nick Rawlins
California
(1963)
Don Michael O'Casey
Moro Witch Doctor
(1964)
Jefferson Stark
The Walls of Hell
(1964)
Lt. Jim Sorenson
Runaway Girl
(1965)
Randy Minola
The Glory Stompers
(1967)
Smiley
Bandolero!
(1968)
Stoner
Tarzan's Deadly Silence
(1970)
The Colonel
The Bad Bunch
(1973)
Sgt. Berry
When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion
(1979)
Self
The Making of the Stooges
(1984)
Self
Salamat sa Alaala
(2015)
Self (archive footage)
Crew
Data provided by TMDB