Whitney Rydbeck, an actor and mime who played the final paintball victim in the movie “Paintball.” Jason’s Life: Friday the 13th Part 6 One of the original crash test dummies in a landmark public service campaign to promote seat belt safety has died. He is 79 years old.
Riddbeck died Monday of complications from cancer at the hospice center in Chatsworth, Calif., where his longtime friend Tommy McLoughlin was director. Jason LifeTell hollywood reporter.
“Not only have we lost a truly funny comedian and actor… but we have lost one of the kindest people I know,” McLaughlin wrote in a tribute on Instagram.
Lanky Riddback has appeared in dozens of TV shows during his busy career, ranging from The Brady Bunch, Phyllis, paste, cagney and lacey and The road to heaven arrive StarCraft: The Next Generation, sisters, single life, Party of five and Scrub.
in sixth Friday the 13th In the 1986 film, Redbeck made a lasting impression as the hilariously nerdy Roy, who wears goggles in the woods during a corporate paintball game and encounters a masked villain. He tried to escape but he couldn’t survive.
Like Jason, Redbeck and Tony Reitano donned masks, not for the movie, but to play crash-test dummies Larry and Vince, respectively. Because they foolishly weren’t wearing seat belts, they bounced around and suffered severe injuries in car crashes, while providing researchers with data on how passengers escaped harm.
This slapstick series of ads, which debuted in 1985, ends with “You can learn a lot from fools.”
Whitney Wilbert Rydbeck was born on March 13, 1945 in Los Angeles. Studied drama there.
Starting in the early 1970s, he and McLaughlin were members of the Richmond Shepard Mime Troupe and the Los Angeles Mime Company, which McLaughlin founded. “He was the perfect fit because he’s very good at physical comedy,” McLaughlin noted.
Riddbeck appeared in a 1970 episode of nanny and professor He and McLoughlin put their pantomime skills to use as silent robots in Woody Allen’s film “2173.” sleeper (1973).
Before the decade was over, Riddbeck also appeared in films starring George Hamilton Fall in love with the first bite (1979), directed by Sylvester Stallone Rocky II (1979) and Steven Spielberg’s 1941 (1979).
In 1979, he played a cab driver on the NBC children’s show who discovers a robot sent to Earth from another planet whitney and robots.
His resume also includes movies oliver co. (1988) and a very brady sequel (1996) and the TV show lover, change, seventh heaven, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and distant space nuts.
Most recently, he taught theater at Pasadena City College. Survivors include his girlfriend of ten years, Claire;
In 2010, Whitney Rydbeck (right) and Tony Reitano celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Vince and Larry crash test dummy charity event.
Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post
Rydback tells DOT of crash test ad Washington post In 2010, it took him and Reitano about 45 minutes to put on the costumes. Their masks completely cover their heads, preventing them from hearing, seeing, and speaking properly. (Jack Burns voices Vince and Lorenzo Music voices Larry.)
In the story, Riddbeck joked that he worried that one day a newspaper would run a headline like: “Actor playing crash dummy dies for not wearing seat belt.”
“I always wear my seat belt, I’ll tell you that,” he said.
