Jack Blessing

A versatile character player in television and the occasional feature for more than three decades, Jack Blessing essayed a wide variety of roles in dramatic and comic fare, including recurring roles on "Moonlighting" (ABC, 1985-89) and "George Lopez" (ABC, 2002-07). Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Blessing was raised in the city's suburbs and attended the Catholic boys' prep school Calvert Hall College High School. After graduation, he earned a degree from the Maryland-based Frostburg State University before entering the U.S. Army in 1972. His military service, which included tenure with the Defense Language Institute, ran until 1975, after which he relocated to Boston, Massachusetts; there, he joined the city's acclaimed improvisational theater group, The Proposition, while taking courses at Harvard University. In his final year with the troupe, Blessing was reportedly spotted by a casting agent from Paramount Studios, which led to his first screen role in the CBS TV-movie "The Defection of Simas Kurdika" (1978), with Alan Arkin. From there, he worked steadily in episodic television, including episodes of "M*A*S*H" (CBS, 1972-1983), while also enjoying minor roles in features like Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" (1980), before landing his first series regular work on "Small & Frye" (CBS, 1983), a short-lived comedy-fantasy series from The Walt Disney Company about a detective (Blessing) who could shrink to a height of six inches. The series lasted just four episodes before cancellation, and Blessing soon returned to steady guest work on television. Between 1986 and 2007, Blessing was a prolific presence on television, enjoying recurring roles on no less than four series while also appearing on numerous individual episodes of network programs ranging from broad sitcoms to police and legal dramas. He was featured in the final two seasons of "Moonlighting" as MacGillicudy, a foil for hapless detective Curtis Armstrong's romantic interest in Allyce Beasley's Agnes DiPesto, and appeared as Tea Leoni's unhinged building manager in the ill-fated debut season of "The Naked Truth" (ABC/NBC, 1995-98), but did not follow the series to NBC after its revival and retooling in 1997. Blessing also played a police detective on multiple episodes of Steve Bochco's "Murder One" (ABC, 1995-1997) and was later throughout the five-year run of "George Lopez" as Jack Powers, one-half of a thoughtless pair of siblings who ran the aviation company that employed series star Lopez. Between these efforts and other guest roles, Blessing also appeared in numerous features, including the Cuban missile crisis drama "Thirteen Days" (2000) and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (2006), and logged numerous hours as a voice-over and automated dialogue replacement (ADR) artist for countless live-action and animated projects. Blessing gave his final screen performance in the animated feature "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return" (2013); he died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Chatsworth, California on November 14, 2017 at the age of 66.