Stage and screen actor Jack Bannon dies

Veteran actor Jack Bannon, of Coeur d’Alene, died Wednesday. He was 77.

Bannon was best known nationally for his role as assistant city editor Art Donovan on the TV series “Lou Grant.” But he was well-known in Coeur d’Alene and Spokane as a stage actor, appearing regularly for many years in Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre productions and with other local theater groups, often co-starring with his wife, Ellen Travolta Bannon.

The couple began visiting Coeur d’Alene in the 1980s and became Lake City residents in 1995.

They became involved with Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre even before moving permanently to Coeur d’Alene, in 1990 with the CST production of “Company.”

Born on June 14, 1940, Bannon graduated in 1963 from UC Santa Barbara, where he studied acting.

He went on to appear in such television series as “Judd for the Defense,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Here’s Lucy,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Daniel Boone,” “Mannix,” “Kojak” and “The Rockford Files” before starring on “Lou Grant.” Bannon later had a regular role on the 1983 ABC drama “Trauma Center.”

He also was on the big screen in several films including “Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?”, “Little Big Man,” “Death Warrant” and “Da Vinci’s War.”

His stage credits outside of Coeur d’Alene and Spokane include “Cloud Nine” in 1983, a show that won an L.A. Drama Critics Award, and he starred in a 1982 production of “Mr. Roberts” in Los Angeles.

In recent years, Bannon was a regular member of the ensemble cast of Ellen Travolta’s annual Christmas show at The Coeur d’Alene Resort, often reading Christmas stories.

Troy Nickerson, who directed the 2014 show, said before that production’s first night that Bannon was one the best story readers he had ever heard.

It was obvious Bannon loved his profession.

“Theater is like a bubble. Once it bursts, you can’t replay it. It’s a moment. It’s a magical sort of thing,” Bannon said, during an interview with a Press reporter in 2013.

He often spoke of what “great fun” his job was.

“I never did get into this whole pursuit-to-be-recognized-by-people-I-didn’t-know thing. I did my whole professional life because it felt good,” Bannon told The Press in 2013. “Some people say, ‘I’ve got to go to work.’ Not me. I never felt that I had to go to work. There were very few times I didn’t like going to work.”

Recalling a one-night staged reading of “Over the River and Through the Woods” that Bannon performed in 2012 with wife Ellen Travolta and two other Coeur d’Alene-based celebrities - the late Patty Duke and Dennis Franz, of TV’s “NYPD Blue” - Bannon said it was a “spectacular memory and the audience was wondrous.”

“Sometimes you just shoot through - it’s a fabulous feeling. We put one foot on the stage and it was a trip on an angel’s back,” he said.

Bannon grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley in a show business family.

His father, Jim Bannon, a radio announcer and film actor, performed in the 1940s and ‘50s in the radio drama serial “I Love a Mystery” and in the “Red Ryder” Western film series.

Bannon’s mother, Bea Benaderet, was known for a supporting role on radio and then TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,” and for her starring role in the 1960s as Kate Bradley on the TV series “Petticoat Junction.” Benaderet was also known for her voice work in animated shorts. She was the voice of the Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes characters Witch Hazel on Bugs Bunny and Tweetie-bird’s owner “Granny.” She was also the voice of Betty Rubble on “The Flintstones.”

Bannon is survived by his wife, Ellen Travolta Bannon; stepchildren Molly Allen and Tom Fridley; sister Maggie Fuller and her husband, Clark Fuller; two nieces and a nephew.

Service arrangements have not yet been disclosed.