RIP Hunt Powers

 

Veteran American actor Hunt Powers died in Los Osos, California on June 19^th. He was 96. Born Jack Fillmore Betts in Jersey City, New Jersey on April 11, 1929. When he was 10, he moved with his family to Miami, Florida and was inspired to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in “Wuthering Heights” (1939). After graduating from Miami Senior High School, he studied theater at the University of Miami and acted in the Moss Hart play “Light Up the Sky” in Cuba. He then moved to New York and made it to Broadway in 1953 in “Richard III”, starring José Ferrer. He then auditioned and was accepted as a member of the Actor’s Studio. He made his big-screen debut in “The Bloody Brood” (1959), starring Peter Falk. He then moved to TV appearing on “Perry Mason” four times among others including “Gunsmoke”. He lied to director Franco Giraldi who cast him in 1966’s “Sugar Colt” by saying he could ride and shoot a gun. He went on to appear in eleven Spaghetti westerns: “Sugar Colt” as Dr. Tom Cooper/Sugar Colt”“Hallelujah for Django” both in1966 as Padre Santo/David Phaylard” he also sang the main theme song, “The Last of the Gunfighters” in 1967 but the film was never completed, “Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows” in as Lazar Peacock/Sabata, “Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End” as Django, “One Damned Day at Dawn... Django Meets Sartana! as Django all in 1970, “The Ballad of Django“ as Django/Halleluia, “Showdown for a Badman” as Tamayo, “A Fistful of Death” as Butch Cassidy and “He was Called the Holy Ghost” Foster/Forster all in 1971 and his final appearance in “Court Martial” as Clint’s uncle in 1973. Betts returned to the U.S. and appeared on Broadway and films and had his own one man show in Los Angeles. Jack was a guest at the 1^st Los Angeles Spaghetti Western Festival in 2011.