Jack Betts, Spider-Man & One Life to Live Actor, Passes Away at 96
Here’s a slice of old-school Hollywood dropped into your feed: character actor Jack Betts has quietly passed at the spry age of 96. Across a career that kicked off in the early ’50s, Betts—also known as Hunt Powers—clocked over 130 film and TV credits, from soap-opera stints to sweaty on-location sword fights in Italian peplum flicks. Variety first flagged the news and People Magazine later confirmed it with a SAG-AFTRA statement, making the rounds this week that Betts had succumbed peacefully, surrounded by family.
You might recognize Betts’s face before you knew his name: he popped up as the reserved Cunningham in Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man reboot, delivered gravelly-voiced threats as Dr. Dan Ramsey in One Life to Live during the ’80s, and turned up on shows like The Twilight Zone and All My Children. His range was almost absurd—today’s guest star, yesterday’s soap staple, tomorrow’s indie cult hero. Born in Miami in 1929, he traded his post-war Army GI haircut for the bright Southern California limelight, studying at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg. By the late ’60s he was jetting to Rome to star in sword-and-sandal adventures, crediting those tight leather tunics for teaching him adaptability on set.
Colleagues from the ’70s sci-fi show Land of the Lost to modern fan-fest conventions recall Betts’s wry humor and never-ending energy. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, he co-founded the Zastran company and penned stage plays until his late 80s. Off-screen, he was just as industrious—married to his wife of five decades, Betty, and a father of two who never slowed down. He even hosted Zoom chats last year, riffing on script notes with young actors who had grown up watching his work.
His passing leaves a gap in that breed of versatile pros who move effortlessly between network dramas and big-screen spectacle. Fans are sharing on social—#RIPJackBetts is trended by those who caught his blink-and-you’ll-miss him roles and those who admired his late-career resurgence teaching at acting workshops. Industry insiders say a memorial is planned in L.A. this spring; details are pending SAG-AFTRA’s official calendar.
Betts once told The Hollywood Reporter that he never chased fame, but chased “a good story and a willing camera.” In that spirit, his legacy isn’t just the dozens of credits attached to his name, but a blueprint for actors seeking longevity over flash. That kind of commitment doesn’t happen by accident—it’s earned with every scene, every line, every quiet nod behind the spotlight. Anyway, that’s the skinny. You know the drill.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Variety, People Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, SAG-AFTRA statement
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
