‘Dirty Dozen’ Actor Richard Jaeckel Dies

Richard Jaeckel, a character actor best known for playing tough guys in films such as “The Dirty Dozen” and “Sands of Iwo Jima,” has died. He was 70.

The stocky, baby-faced actor who also played combat cowards and comic foils, died Saturday night at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, nursing supervisor Ann Walsh said today. She said she did not know his cause of death.

In 1971, Jaeckel was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his work in “Sometimes a Great Notion.” The film, directed by Paul Newman and starring Newman and Henry Fonda, was based on a novel by Ken Kesey about a family of loggers carving a living out of the Oregon woods.

As a churlish sergeant in the 1967 movie “The Dirty Dozen,” Jaeckel played one of the few survivors along with stars Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson. He revived the character in the film’s made-for-television sequel, “The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission” in 1985.

Jaeckel also appeared in “The Devil’s Brigade,” “All the Marbles,” “Starman” and “Airplane II: The Sequel.” Most recently, he was in “Delta Force 2” and “The King of the Kickboxers.”

In 1943, Jaeckel was plucked from the mail room of 20th Century Fox to portray a teen-age Marine in “Guadalcanal Diary.” After serving in the Navy from 1944 to 1948, he played a young Marine again in “The Sands of Iwo Jima” with John Wayne.