Character actor John Davis Chandler was born on January 28, 1935, in
Hinton, West Virginia. He was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Tall
and thin, with fair hair, piercing blue eyes, a pale complexion and a
nasal, whiny voice, Chandler specialized in portraying mean, neurotic
and dangerous villains. He made an impressive film debut in his sole
starring part as the titular sniveling, psychotic, homicidal weasel
gangster in Der Tollwütige (1961). He
acted in a trio of Westerns for director
Sam Peckinpah, and is especially memorable
(and frightening) as the creepy Jimmy Hammond in the magnificent
Sacramento (1962).
He was excellent as vicious punk Arthur Reardon in
Die jungen Wilden (1961). He
made an effectively loathsome appearance as a vile bushwhacker in the
supremely spooky horror-western
The Shadow of Chikara (1977)
and had a nice bit as a bounty hunter in
Clint Eastwood's terrific
Der Texaner (1976). He even played a good guy--of sorts--in Peckinpah's Sierra Charriba (1965).
Chandler popped up in three entertaining drive-in exploitation features
for director William Grefé: at his wacky
best as the crazed, doped-up Acid in
Die Gierigen (1968),
a foul shark poacher in the fun Der weiße Hai (1975)
copy
Mako, die Bestie (1976)
and an evil pot farmer in
Whiskey Mountain (1977). Among
the many TV shows John did guest spots on are
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993),
Walker, Texas Ranger (1993),
Chicago Hope: Endstation Hoffnung (1994)
Emergency Room: Die Notaufnahme (1994),
Simon und Simon (1981),
Hunter (1984),
Mord ist ihr Hobby (1984),
Polizeirevier Hill Street (1981),
T. J. Hooker (1982),
Fantasy Island (1977),
Der unglaubliche Hulk (1977),
Make-Up und Pistolen (1974),
Rauchende Colts (1955),
Adam-12 (1968),
Auf der Flucht (1963),
Combat! (1962),
Westlich von Santa Fe (1958),
Route 66 (1960) and
Die Leute von der Shiloh Ranch (1962). In real
life he was an avid practitioner of yoga. Chandler died at age 75 on
February 16, 2010 in Toluca Lake, California.
