Jack Axelrod — who played mob boss Victor Jerome on “General Hospital” in the 1980s and guest-starred on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “My Name is Earl,” among other TV series — has died. He was 93.
Axelrod died Nov. 28 of natural causes in Los Angeles, his rep, Jennifer Garland, told media outlets.
“I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with him in his last years, as he had no immediate family,” Garland said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “We spent much time outdoors, where Jack loved to sketch, read news articles, and recite Shakespearean sonnets.”
Born on Jan. 25, 1930, Axelrod served as a corporal in the US Army. He was stationed in Germany from 1953 to 1955, Variety reports.
After the Korean War, Axelrod majored in architecture at the University of California at Berkeley and pursued an acting career while working as an architect.
For six years, he studied under legendary Tony Award winner Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio in NYC.
Hagen, who died in 2004, also taught megastars such as Robert DeNiro, Gene Wilder, Faye Dunaway and Matthew Broderick.
For his part, Axelrod made his feature film debut in Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy “Bananas,” per his IMDb page.
He starred on the ABC soap “General Hospital” for 40 episodes from 1987 to 1989.
He played Electrolarynx Guy and other characters on “My Name is Earl” and a semi-comatose patient who suffers an unusual fate on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Other notable credits include “Dallas,” “Dynasty,” “Night Court,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
In addition to his lengthy film and TV career, Axelrod also played Banquo in a 1969 off-Broadway production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and had a role in the Broadway play “Gandhi,” which closed on opening night.
He taught theater at several universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Boston University, University of Michigan, and Penn State.
His last credit came in 2020 with the release of “Bad Therapy,” which stars Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry and Michaela Watkins. Axelrod played a doctor.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
