Jay Thomas (born Jon Thomas Terrell; July 12, 1948 – August 24, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976–1979 on

top-40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in Los Angeles beginning in 1986 on

KPWR KPWR (105.9 FM) – branded as ''Power 106'' – is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. KPWR is owned and operated by Meruelo Group and airs a Rhythmic Hot AC format. KPWR's stud ...

"Power 106", where he hosted the station's top-rated morning show until 1993. His notable television work included his co-starring role as Remo DaVinci on ''

Mork & Mindy ''Mork & Mindy'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of ''Happy Days'', "My Favorite Orkan", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrestr ...

'' (1979–1981), the recurring role of Eddie LeBec, a

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The ...

goalie In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

on the downside of his career, on ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...

'' (1987–1989), the lead character of newspaper columnist Jack Stein on '' Love & War'' (1992–1995), and a repeat guest role as Jerry Gold, a talk-show host who becomes both an antagonist and love interest of the title character on '' Murphy Brown''. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991 for portraying Gold. In 1997, he starred in the television film ''

Killing Mr. Griffin ''Killing Mr. Griffin'' is a 1978 suspense novel by Lois Duncan about a group of teenaged students at a New Mexico high school, who plan to kidnap their strict English teacher, Mr. Griffin. Duncan developed the story from the character of Mark, ...

'', based on the eponymous novel. In films, he co-starred in '' Mr. Holland's Opus'' as a high-school coach with a flair for theatrics, and portrayed the Easter Bunny in '' The Santa Clause 2'' and '' The Santa Clause 3''. He was also an annual guest on ''

The Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production ...

'' during the Christmas season, where he told a story about how he met Clayton Moore, who portrayed the title character on '' The Lone Ranger''. Beginning in 2005, he hosted ''The Jay Thomas Show'' on SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel 94 comedy greats Monday thru Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings on Howard 101.

Early life and education

Thomas was born in Kermit, Texas, to Katharine (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Guzzino) and Timothy Harry Terrell. He was raised in his

Italian American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan area ...

mother's

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

religion; his father was

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. Thomas was raised in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Jesuit High School. He went on to attend and graduate from

Jacksonville University Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, w ...

. Thomas was the quarterback on his high-school football team and also quarterbacked in college, a skill he later used on ''The Late Show with David Letterman''.

Letterman appearances

Thomas made annual Christmas appearances on

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of '' Late Night with David Letterma ...

's CBS late night show, beginning in December 1998. Letterman and one of his other guests that evening, then- New York Jets quarterback

Vinny Testaverde Vincent Frank Testaverde Sr. (; born November 13, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons. He played college football at Miami, where he was an All-American and won the ...

, took turns throwing footballs trying to knock a large meatball off the top of a

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern G ...

at the other end of the stage. As the two took turns futilely attempting to knock off the meatball, Thomas came back out to join in the festivities, and promptly knocked the meatball from the tree. Beginning on a subsequent visit to Letterman's show, Thomas told a story about when he was a young

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

(around 1972) at

WAYS Way may refer to: Paths * a road, route, path or pathway, including long-distance paths. * a straight rail or track on a machine tool, (such as that on the bed of a lathe) on which part of the machine slides * Ways, large slipway in shipbuilding ...

610 AM in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. Thomas had been making a promotional appearance at a local

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

dealership, which had also booked a personal appearance by actor Clayton Moore, best known as The Lone Ranger on television and in films; Moore appeared at the event dressed in his Lone Ranger costume. According to Thomas, he and his colleague Mike Martin, both clad in the hip fashion of the day (including tight jeans, tie-dyed shirts and their hair, which Martin wore long while Thomas himself sported what he called a "White Man's Afro"), had secretly gotten "herbed-up" (smoked marijuana) several times throughout the day behind a dumpster. After the broadcast had ended and the crowd had left, while packing up their equipment, Thomas and Martin discovered that Moore was still there, as the car that was supposed to drive him back to his hotel never arrived; Thomas then offered Moore a ride in his own car, an old, decrepit

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

, which Moore accepted. While stuck in traffic, with Moore sitting quietly in the back seat, an impatient, middle-aged man backed his full-sized

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

into the front end of Thomas' compact Volvo, broke a headlight, and then drove off. An angry Thomas chased the Buick down Morehead Street weaving through heavy traffic and forgetting all about Moore still sitting quietly in his back seat. Thomas finally caught up to the man, blocked his Buick with the Volvo, and confronted him about the broken headlight. The indignant driver denied all; when Thomas threatened to call police, the man exclaimed, "Who do you think they'll believe? Me, or you two ''hippie freaks''?" At that moment, Moore, still in costume as the Lone Ranger, stepped out of the Volvo, approached the man and said "They'll believe ''me'', citizen!" The man, incredulous, exclaimed "I didn't know it was you!" For every year thereafter except 2013, Thomas appeared to repeat the Lone Ranger story, which Letterman called, "The best talk show story, ever", and once again attempt what Letterman would refer to as the "''Late Show'' Quarterback Challenge". For his final appearance in December 2014, Thomas was again successful in knocking the meatball off the top of the tree. Thomas missed the 2013 ''Late Show'' Christmas episode due to throat surgery;

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

took his place and told the Lone Ranger story, then tried, unsuccessfully, to knock the meatball off the tree by hitting tennis balls at it.

Personal life

Thomas fathered

J. T. Harding John Thomas "J.T." Harding is an American country music songwriter. He has written songs for artists such as Uncle Kracker, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and Darius Rucker. History Harding is the biological son of actor and comedian Jay Thomas, who ...

in an out-of-wedlock relationship, and the child was adopted by another family in Michigan. Thomas and his son spoke about their reunion on the ''

Dr. Phil Show ''Dr. Phil'' is an American talk show created by Oprah Winfrey and the host Phil McGraw. After McGraw's segments on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', ''Dr. Phil'' debuted on September 16, 2002. On both shows, McGraw offers advice in the form of "life ...

''. Harding was the lead singer of the band JTX and is a country-music songwriter. Thomas married Sally Michelson in 1987. They had two sons, Samuel and Jacob.

Death

Jay Thomas died of throat cancer on August 24, 2017, surrounded by his family in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coa ...

, at the age of 69.

Filmography

References

External links

*
"The Jay Thomas Show" website

Haunting Jay Thomas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Jay 1948 births 2017 deaths American male television actors American male film actors Primetime Emmy Award winners 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors Male actors from New Orleans Male actors from Texas Jacksonville University alumni Jacksonville Dolphins football players American talk radio hosts Radio personalities from New York City Radio personalities from Los Angeles Radio personalities from New Orleans American people of Italian descent People from Kermit, Texas Deaths from throat cancer Deaths from cancer in California Catholics from Texas