James 'Danno' MacArthur 1937-2010

[Zoneboy]

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James MacArthur, the boyish actor who became a household name in the 1970s as Danny "Danno" Williams on TV's Hawaii Five-0, died Thursday, a family representative told PEOPLE.

He was 72 and his family was at his side at the time of his death, according to a family statement. No further details, including a cause, were given.

Born in Los Angeles on December 8, 1937, MacArthur was adopted shortly after his birth by two living legends: actress Helen Hayes, considered the First Lady of the American stage, and her husband, Charles MacArthur, who, with collaborator Ben Hecht, wrote what some consider the greatest American stage comedies of all time, The Front Page and Twentieth Century.

The young MacArthur grew up with his parents' biological daughter, Mary, on the family estate in Nyack, New York, which was called "Pretty Penny" – so named because that's what it had cost.

Growing up in such an atmosphere was not always easy. As MacArthur told McCall's magazine in 1956 (and reprinted on his official Web site): "I think my mother is a great actress and the sweetest, gentlest and most generous woman I ever met. But she's vague at times and often impractical and sometimes does strange things … She knows practically nothing about handling money."

Though he played sports as a boy, it seemed almost pre-ordained that MacArthur would become an actor. During summer breaks as a student at Harvard in the late 1950s and early '60s he played the clean-cut male love interests in Third Man on the Mountain, Kidnapped and Swiss Family Robinson – all for Walt Disney – and, in 1961, debuted on Broadway opposite another newcomer, Jane Fonda, in the comedy Invitation to a March, which ran 113 performances and won him the Theatre World Award for Best New Actor.

Other Broadway roles followed, as did movies, including the 1965 all-star WWII drama, The Battle of the Bulge and 1968's Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western, Hang 'Em High, in which MacArthur played a traveling preacher.

That was the role that led to his being cast as Detective Dan Williams on Hawaii Five-0, which costarred Jack Lord and ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980. (A new version, starring Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan, debuted this fall on CBS and is also a ratings hit.)

Off camera, according to the family statement, "James was an avid tennis player and enjoyed skiing, fishing and hiking. He was a skilled flamenco guitarist and a consummate reader. His passion for playing golf led him to meet and fall in love with his wife, LPGA tour player and teacher, 'H.B.' Duntz."

His wife of more than 25 years, Helen Beth Duntz, survives MacArthur, as do four children and seven grandchildren. (MacArthur's first two marriages, from 1958 to 1967 to actress Joyce Bulifant, and another, from 1970 to 1975 to actress Melody Patterson, both ended in divorce.)

In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, D.C.; the Helen Hayes Hospital in Nyack; the Solebury School MOM Fund in New Hope, Penn.; the Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church, Palm Desert, Calif.; and the Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu.

[Brian Damage]

Just in: James MacArthur, the original "Danno" in 1970s show Hawaii Five-0 died today at age 72.

The son of Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur, MacArthur was a star of stage, film and television, including famous roles in Swiss Family Robinson and Battle of the Bulge.

He leaves behind his wife of more than 25 years, Helen Beth (H.B. Duntz), four children and seven grandchildren. Memorial services will be held in Nyack, New York; Palm Desert, Calif; and Honolulu, Hawaii

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...es-at-age-72/1

[Marvo301]

James MacArthur

[Marvo301]

James 'Danno' MacArthur

[Dianne3]

You know what is ironic?

Not long before the current Hawaii 5-0 premiered, he was in one of the tabloids saying he was going to live another 20 years.

RIP.

[catlover79]

NOOOOOOOO!!!! He was supposed to appear on the new H5O as well. He was also the last surviving member of the original cast.

[catlover79]

He was supposed to make a guest appearance on the new H5O as well, and was also the last surviving member of the original cast.

[80sTrivia]

Oh, no... such sad news...

[CommonTater]

James MacArthur, an actor best known for portraying Detective Danny "Danno" Williams on the original "Hawaii Five-0," the TV series that turned "Book 'em, Danno" into a national catchphrase, has died. He was 72.

MacArthur, who also appeared in the classic Disney film "Swiss Family Robinson," died of natural causes Thursday in Florida, said his agent, Richard Lewis.

From 1968 to 1979, MacArthur appeared on "Hawaii Five-0" as the chief assistant to Detective Steve McGarrett, played by Jack Lord, who often ended episodes of the police drama by uttering the famous line.

"He said 'book him' to others in the cast, but I guess he said it to me the most," MacArthur told Florida's Bradenton Herald in 2007. "It wasn't anything we really thought about at first. But the phrase just took off and caught the public's imagination."

A year before "Hawaii Five-0" ended its run in 1980, MacArthur left the hit show a wealthy man. He had invested his earnings, often in Hawaiian real estate, and only occasionally appeared on television after that.

Born Dec. 8, 1937, in Los Angeles, James Gordon MacArthur was the adopted son of Helen Hayes, an actress who was dubbed the first lady of the American theater, and Charles MacArthur, a playwright and screenwriter who co-wrote the play "The Front Page." His older sister, Mary, died of polio at 19 in 1949.

His parents tried to keep their young son away from the theater, but he often had opportunities for walk-on parts, he told the Los Angeles Times in 1962, and he debuted on stage when he was 8 as a Welsh boy in "The Corn Is Green" in summer stock in Maryland.

He attended Harvard University but eventually left to pursue a film career that featured him as a tortured teen in such dramatic films as "The Young Stranger" (1957) and "Light in the Forest" (1958), one of four Disney movies he made.

MacArthur also starred in Disney's "Third Man on the Mountain" (1959) as a Swiss boy determined to climb the Matterhorn and in "Kidnapped" (1960), a historical adventure set in old Scotland.

In the well-received 1960 movie "Swiss Family Robinson," he played one of the sons of the shipwrecked family that builds a life on a tropical island.

Decades later, MacArthur recalled in The Times that the cast became one happy family while filming on location on the island of Tobago in the West Indies.

"Everybody was having fun," MacArthur said in a 2002 Times interview. "I was like 20 or 21, and I was on this island with pirate ships and was playing poker with Sessue Hayakawa," who portrayed the captain of the band of pirates.

MacArthur played Hayley Mills' first boyfriend in "The Truth About Spring" (1965) and later joked: "I gave Hayley her first screen kiss. Somebody had to do it."

He had a small role as a preacher in the Clint Eastwood western "Hang 'em High," a 1968 film written by Leonard Freeman, who produced "Hawaii Five-0."

When the "Hawaii Five-0" pilot was screened for a test audience, they liked the show but thought Tim O'Kelly, who was cast as Lord's assistant, was too young for the role. Freeman asked MacArthur if he would like the part.

"I read a script and said, 'Heck, yes,'" MacArthur said in 2007 in The Bradenton Herald.

By its third season, the series was one of the top 10 most-watched shows.

Freeman "told us, 'We can be a big hit. This is a morality play. It's good versus evil and the good guys are going to win.' That was during the Vietnam era, and I think many people were looking for something like that," MacArthur said in the 2007 interview.

After leaving "Hawaii Five-0," his most prominent role was the 1980 TV movie "Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story," in which he played a rare non-sympathetic character, according to the AllMovie Internet database.

He also acted with his mother in a 1980 episode of "The Love Boat."

More recently, he had co-directed a revival at the Diamond Head Theatre in Honolulu of "Twentieth Century," a play his father co-wrote.

As of 1997, MacArthur was semi-retired and living in Palm Desert, Calif.. He also often spent time in Hawaii "in one of the best investments he ever made," he told The Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2003 - a Diamond Head condo he bought to live in during the early years of "Hawaii Five-0."

His marriages to actresses Joyce Bulifant and Melody Patterson ended in divorce.

MacArthur is survived by his wife of more than 25 years, Helen Beth Duntz, a former professional golfer; four children, Charles P. MacArthur, James D. MacArthur, Mary McClure and Juliette Rappaport; and seven grandchildren.

[80sTrivia]

Such sad, sad news...

[ponytail]

On TV they said a TV legend has passed away and I tried to think of who they were talking about. Then they said Danno from Hawaii Five-O. What a shock! He left us too soon. That is sad news.

[catlover79]

This month alone we've lost "Manimal", "Mrs. Cleaver", "Mr. Cunningham" and now "Danno".

[Rezny@gmail.com]

And,I also read in an article a long time ago that the late Jack Lord did NOT get along with him,and the article I read said that the late Jack Lord hated his guts.Now how true that is,I don't know.And that could be one reason the late James Mac Arthur quit in the next-to -last season.

[old grouch]

RIP, Dano.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by rrezny@usnetizen

And,I also read in an article a long time ago that the late Jack Lord did NOT get along with him,and the article I read said that the late Jack Lord hated his guts.Now how true that is,I don't know.And that could be one reason the late James Mac Arthur quit in the next-to -last season.

For what it's worth, I've read more than once that Jack Lord was an egomaniac and EVERYONE had a hard time getting along with him - so it wouldn't surprise me.