Biography
Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney, professionally known as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in the Western TV series The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer, and portrayed Tarzan in two feature films, also contributing to various other Tarzan productions. He was occasionally credited as Jack O'Mahoney or Jock O'Mahoney.
Mahoney attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, excelling in swimming and diving, but left to enlist in the United States Marine Corps at the start of World War II. He served as a pilot, flight instructor, and war correspondent. After his Marine Corps discharge, he moved to Los Angeles and briefly worked as a horse breeder before becoming a movie stuntman, doubling for stars such as Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne. Most of his late 1940s and early 1950s films were produced by Columbia Pictures. Like many Columbia contract players, he appeared in the studio’s two-reel comedies. Starting in 1947, he starred alongside the Three Stooges in Out West, Squareheads of the Round Table (and its remake, Knutzy Knights), Fuelin' Around, and Punchy Cowpunchers.
From 1950 onward, Columbia gave Mahoney leading roles in adventure serials. His significant contributions earned him featured billing and major supporting parts, initially as villains and later as sympathetic characters. By 1952, Columbia billed him as Jack Mahoney. Cowboy star Gene Autry, then with Columbia, cast Mahoney to star in a television series. Autry's Flying A Productions produced 79 half-hour episodes of the syndicated The Range Rider from 1951 to 1953.
In the 1958 TV season, Mahoney starred in the Western-themed Yancy Derringer series, which ran for 34 episodes on CBS. The show featured Yancy Derringer, a gentleman adventurer in post-Civil War New Orleans, accompanied by his Pawnee Indian companion Pahoo Katchewa ("Wolf Who Stands in Water"), a silent character played by X Brands, who had saved Derringer’s life and was devoted to protecting him.
In 1962, Mahoney became the 13th actor to play Tarzan, starring in Tarzan Goes to India, filmed on location in India. The following year, he reprised the role in Tarzan's Three Challenges, shot in Thailand. During filming in the Thai jungles, Mahoney suffered from dysentery and dengue fever, dropping to 175 pounds and requiring 18 months to recover. Due to his health and producer Weintraub’s decision to pursue a younger look for Tarzan, his contract was mutually ended. In the 1980s, Mahoney made guest appearances on B. J. and the Bear and The Fall Guy. In his later years, he was a favored guest at film conventions and autograph shows.
Mahoney passed away at age 70 from a second stroke, two days after a car accident in Bremerton, Washington. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
