
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 6, 1991                   TAG: 9102060434
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHARACTER ACTOR DEAN JAGGER DIES AT AGE 87

Dean Jagger, a robust and sympathetic character actor who appeared in more than 120 films over half a century, died Tuesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87.

He had been suffering from heart disease, a family spokesman said.

The bald, firm-jawed Jagger won an Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1950 for his stirring performance as a wartime Air Force officer in "Twelve O'Clock High."

Jagger adeptly played a stunning variety of roles, including men of thought and men of action, usually personable authority figures.

He was sometimes a heavy and occasionally a hero, as in the title role of "Brigham Young - Frontiersman," a 1940 recounting of the Mormons' trek to Utah, but he was always a durable trouper.

He was also a familiar figure on television, particularly as the wise high school principal in the mid-1960s dramatic series "Mr. Novak," co-starring James Franciscus.

Jagger also appeared in many television plays, and in 1980 he won an Emmy for acting in a religious program, "Independence and '76, This Is the Life."

by CNB