Jay North


Jay Waverly North Jr. was an American actor and later a corrections officer after retiring from acting. His career as a child actor began in the late 1950s, and he went on to appear in eight TV series, two variety shows, and three feature films. At age seven, he became a household name for his role as the good-natured but mischievous Dennis Mitchell on the CBS situation comedy Dennis the Menace, based on the comic strip created by Hank Ketcham.
As a teen, North had roles in two Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature films: Zebra in the Kitchen and Maya. He also starred in the NBC television series adaptation of the latter film. As an adult, he turned to voice acting for animated television series, voicing the roles of Prince Turhan in the Arabian Knights segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour and a teenaged Bamm-Bamm Rubble on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.
After leaving show business, North began working with fellow former child star Paul Petersen and the organization A Minor Consideration, using his experiences as a child performer to counsel other children working in the entertainment industry.

Early life

North was born in Hollywood, the only child of Jay and Dorothy North. North's father was an alcoholic, and his parents' marriage was turbulent. When he was four, his parents separated, and North never saw his father again. He briefly resided in Birmingham, Alabama. His mother worked as the secretary to the West Coast director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
From a young age, North was a fan of television. When he was six, his mother used her connections at AFTRA to arrange for him to appear on his favorite television program, local Los Angeles children's show Cartoon Express, hosted by Engineer Bill. Prominent Hollywood talent agent Hazel MacMillan was impressed with the photogenic boy, contacting his mother the following day offering to represent him. His mother was aware of the stories of troubled former child stars, and had reservations, but eventually gave her approval.

Career

Early years

North's first professional acting job was a live appearance on the gameshow Queen for a Day, hosted by Jack Bailey. He continued to work as a child model and actor in commercials, and landed small parts on a number of popular NBC variety shows of the 1950s, such as The George Gobel Show, The Eddie Fisher Show, and The Milton Berle Show, before auditioning for the role that made him a star.
In June 1958, Columbia Pictures's television division Screen Gems was holding a nationwide search for a boy to play the title character in their television adaptation of the popular Dennis the Menace comic strip by Hank Ketcham, and six-year-old North auditioned. After receiving news that his first audition had not gone well, agent Hazel MacMillan pressed the studio to see him again. The studio agreed and was impressed with his second audition. After hundreds of other boys' auditions, North was asked back to screen test with Herbert Anderson, Gloria Henry, and Joseph Kearns. A pilot was filmed later that summer.
The season passed, and North heard nothing more from Screen Gems, but continued to work, appearing in a Christmas-themed episode of the CBS Western series Wanted Dead or Alive titled "Eight Cent Reward". In the episode, he portrayed Laddie Stone, a young boy who pays bounty hunter Josh Randall eight cents to find Santa Claus. Over the next several months, North made television appearances on such shows as 77 Sunset Strip, Rescue 8, Cheyenne, Bronco, Colt.45, and Sugarfoot, and broke into feature films with roles in The Miracle of the Hills and The Big Operator. In early 1959, North was confirmed to play Dennis.

''Dennis the Menace''

Dennis the Menace premiered on CBS on Sunday, October 4, 1959, and quickly became a hit with audiences. North was paid per episode, his strawberry red hair was bleached platinum blonde for the role, and the 8-year-old was instructed to "shave" a year off his age when speaking with the press. His mother continued to work at AFTRA full-time, and hired business managers to invest his earnings. In a 1993 interview with Filmfax magazine, North spoke highly of his mother, saying: "I want to make it very clear about one thing. I never supported my mother during . She earned her own money from AFTRA. She never lived off my earnings. I know that sometimes happens with child actors, but it was not true in my situation."
While his mother worked, her sister Marie Hopper and brother-in-law actor-composer Hal Hopper served as his on-set guardians during filming for Dennis the Menace. In addition to filming the series, he appeared as Dennis in commercials for the show's sponsors, Kellogg's cereals, Best Foods mayonnaise, Skippy peanut butter, and Bosco chocolate milk, and regularly traveled around the country with his aunt and uncle on the weekends to promote the show. These obligations, combined with the required three hours a day of school, took their toll on him, and by the end of the first season, the eight-year-old had begun to feel the pressures of being the lead star of a popular show.
In late 1960, the second season of the series was ranked among TV's top-20 shows, and his portrayal of Dennis had become a beloved pop culture icon. He made crossover guest appearances as Dennis on such television shows as The Donna Reed Show and The Red Skelton Hour, and in the feature film Pépé. That year, North recorded The Misadventures of Dennis the Menace soundtrack stories on LP, and an LP album of songs titled Jay North – Look who's singing!. With the success of the series, the Hoppers became strict taskmasters and stern disciplinarians. He was not allowed to socialize with other cast members on the set and missed being around children his own age. He ate alone in his dressing room. His only opportunity to relax was the occasional "free day" when he could play baseball with other children or when his uncle would take him to see horror films. His favorite films at that time were The Pit and the Pendulum and Village of the Damned.
By late 1961, the series was in its third season, and North was earning per episode. The show remained in the top 20, but North had grown tired and frustrated with the pressures of carrying a hit show and the long work hours. Complicating matters was his relationship with his aunt Marie. Many years later, North revealed that his aunt physically and verbally abused him when he made mistakes on the set or did not perform to her standards. He said if he failed a line, she would take him behind the set and beat him. For years, watching reruns was too painful for him. His mother and the rest of the Dennis the Menace cast were unaware of the abuse, and he concealed his unhappiness due to threatened retribution from his aunt. In a 1993 interview, North's childhood co-star, Jeannie Russell, said, "If Jay says she abused him in private, then I'm inclined to believe it. The sheer demands of being in every scene all by itself had to be extremely stressful. Any extra pressure from would have made it unbearable." In 2007, she said: "'The show comes first.' This was the ethic that we were raised in. Had I seen any abuse or any horrible upset on Jay's part, I would have noticed. It would have impacted me. It would have upset me terribly."
By the fourth season, North was earning an episode; but by 1962, the 11-year-old had begun to outgrow the character's childish antics. This, combined with the unexpected death of the actor who played Dennis' foil, Mr. Wilson, near the end of season three, had changed the dynamic of the show. During his interview with Filmfax, North recalled: "Between the pressures of the business and Joe's dying, I became very serious, very morbid, and very withdrawn from the world. I was the antithesis of the little kid that I played on the television show." By the end of the fourth season, ratings were down, and in early 1963, to his relief, Dennis the Menace was canceled.

Teen years

In late 1963, North's mother enrolled him in a preparatory school, but due to his part-time education while filming Dennis the Menace, combined with not having been allowed to socialize with other children, he struggled to keep up with his studies at his new school, and was nervous interacting with the other students. North continued to audition, and in 1964, he appeared in an episode of Wagon Train, but found himself typecast as the impish Dennis Mitchell and had trouble finding steady work. In 1999, North told the E! network, "I had to fight the ghost of Dennis the Menace, and I was typecast. I still had the face, and that's what casting directors, producers, and directors saw when I would go in to read for a role."
In 1965, he landed the lead role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer family comedy film Zebra in the Kitchen as Chris Carlyle, a boy, who, unhappy with the living conditions he finds at his local zoo, decides to set the animals free, causing chaos throughout the town. Over the next year, he continued to appear in small television roles, guest-starring on the MGM TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and reuniting with his former Dennis the Menace co-star Gale Gordon on The Lucy Show. In 1966, North landed the starring role in another MGM family adventure film, Maya. In the movie, which was filmed on location in India, North played Terry Bowen, a boy who navigates the Indian jungle with a Hindu boy and an elephant and her baby calf, the latter a sacred white elephant. He continued to appear in small guest-starring roles on television shows such as My Three Sons and Jericho, and in 1967, NBC decided to make a television series adaptation of Maya. North agreed to reprise his role and was soon back filming on location in India.
The feature film Maya and subsequent television series made North a popular teen idol of the era, featured in numerous teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, 16 Magazine, Teen Datebook, and Flip. While Maya proved popular with teen audiences, the NBC series struggled in its time slot against popular shows of the time, CBS's The Jackie Gleason Show and ABC's The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, and was canceled after one season. Years later, North spoke fondly of his experience on the series, saying, "I can say that I'm really proud of my work on Maya, from a professional standpoint. I got to play an adult role and it was a challenge." North had missed a full year of school while filming Maya in India, and after returning home to Hollywood, began a normal life in high school, graduating from Rexford Senior High School in Beverly Hills in 1969.
Meanwhile in 1969, North also narrated the surf film The Fantastic Plastic Machine.