ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Jack Weston, the rotund, balding character actor who played an uptight dentist in ``The Four Seasons,'' a stalker in ``Wait Until Dark'' and the resort manager in ``Dirty Dancing,'' died Friday at age 71.
Weston had lymphoma for six years, his wife said.
In a 40-year career that spanned Broadway, television and movies, the versatile actor played everyone from sleazy villains to terrifying killers to clumsy comics.
His bad-guy roles included a stalker who, with Alan Arkin, terrorized a blind Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 classic ``Wait Until Dark.''
He appeared in much lighter roles in ``Cactus Flower,'' ``Please Don't Eat the Daisies'' and ``Dirty Dancing.'' In the latter, which was partially filmed at Mountain Lake in Giles County, he ran a family resort that set the stage for romance between a teen-ager and a dance instructor.
His stage work included the Broadway hits ``California Suite'' in 1976 and 1981's ``The Floating Lightbulb,'' for which he received a Tony nomination for his role as the trashy manager.
Also in 1981, Weston appeared opposite Alan Alda in ``The Four Seasons,'' a movie about three middle-aged couples who vacation together. He played a cantankerous dentist obsessed with his Mercedes, which ended up going through the ice into a frozen lake at the movie's conclusion.
Other film credits include ``Stage Struck'' (1958), ``The Cincinnati Kid,'' (1965), ``The Thomas Crown Affair'' (1968), ``The Ritz'' (1976) and ``Ishtar'' (1987).
Born in Cleveland, he was a machine gunner and USO performer in World War II before starting his theater career.
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Weston.by CNB