Remembering Actor James Handy For The Right Reasons – Guest Column
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- James Handy, a character actor with 143+ film and TV credits spanning Arachnophobia, Jumanji, Logan, and Top Gun: Maverick, was stabbed to death on the front lawn of his Tarzana home by the schizophrenic son of his girlfriend, whose 911 call declared "I am the Son of Man. I just killed the Man of Sin."
- Handy's 11 months serving with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade in Vietnam's Tây Ninh province — including 27 straight days of heavy combat, jungle so dark "you couldn't see your hand in front of your face" — transformed him into a pacifist and informed the empathy he brought to every role.
- Handy's career launched with Kevin Doneghy opposite Paul Newman in Sidney Lumet's 1982 film The Verdict, and he went on to play Congressman Joseph Bruno on The West Wing — a Republican who refused to weaponize Leo McGarry's past addiction for political gain.
- Carl Kurlander, screenwriter of St. Elmo's Fire, credits Handy's performance in an Off-Broadway All My Sons with inspiring his own pivot from pre-med studies at Duke to a creative life, and recalls living rent-free in Handy's austere New York studio during a low point in his own career.
- Kurlander warns the character actor profession faces an "existential threat" from streaming and AI, arguing "the next Jim Handy" may not get to exist as the industry hollows out the middle class of working actors.
- Kurlander criticizes the political hijacking of Handy's death — an L.A. mayoral candidate's call to ship the mentally ill to Seattle, and Trump's "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME" post about the Reiner killings — and shares his own stepsister's schizophrenia to insist the conversation should be about "basic human decency."
Why it matters: Handy's 143+ credits across four decades made him the working character actor Kurlander says streaming has hollowed out and AI now threatens. The political hijacking of his killing — from an L.A. mayoral race talking point to Trump's response to the Reiner murders — has obscured what Kurlander insists is the real story: one man's rare humanity and a country that won't talk honestly about mental illness.
