Macon’s Jack DeMave, who acted in ‘Lassie,’ ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ and ‘Days of our Lives,’ dies at age 91

Jack DeMave’s acting career swept him across four mediums — stage, television, movies and commercials. 

He was on Broadway with Charlton Heston in “Mr. Roberts.”  He was cast as Ranger Bob Ericson on the TV series “Lassie,’’ joking that he departed  the show after three years because “the dog got all the good lines.”

DeMave was a familiar face in the recurring role of Armond Lynton on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show.’’ He was a guest star on “The Fugitive,’’ “Days of Our Lives,’’ “General Hospital,’’ “The Bold and the Beautiful,’’ “Ellery Queen” and “Marcus Welby M.D.’’ 

He worked with such stars as Don Rickles, Hedy Lamarr, Bob Newhart, Doris Day, Ann Blyth, Nanette Fabray, Rock Hudson, Mel Gibson and Bette Davis.  He appeared in a Paine Webber commercial with tennis star Jimmy Connors and rode a horse through Manhattan as the Lone Ranger in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade.

“He lived a beautiful life, and he shared it with all of us,’’ said Carol Elmore, who met DeMave 12 years ago when she was in the marketing department at Carlyle Place.

DeMave, of Macon, died Friday, Jan. 17, six weeks after his 91st birthday. Services will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Macon Memorial Park.

“We thought he was going to live forever,’’ friend Susan McDuffie said. “He was a fascinating person. I would call him the star of Carlyle Place. And Macon, too, when people really got to know him. We are going to miss him so much.’’

DeMave was dashing and debonair, with movie-star looks, and few would have suspected he was a nonagenarian, according to his friends, the Rev. Don and Mary Dale Kea.

“He was very close-mouthed about how old he was,’’ Mary Dale Kea said. “He didn’t want anybody to know.’’

She said several movie databases listed his date of birth as 1935, but Don Kea said DeMave’s pre-arranged headstone at the cemetery has his DOB as Dec. 8, 1933.

“When I first met him, he wanted me to tell people he was 75,’’ Elmore said. “I looked at him and said, ‘OK, but you know people can Google you?’ It was so funny.’’

DeMave was a native of the Jersey Shore. He put down roots in Macon, the hometown of his wife, the late Camille Smith DeMave. 

They moved to Macon in the summer of 2011, not long after the death of her sister, Regina McDonald Martin. That same year, Camille was diagnosed with ovarian
cancer. 

The DeMaves became residents of Carlyle Place in November 2012, and she died on July 5, 2013, two months before their 50th wedding anniversary. 

DeMave did have a connection with Macon before he married. His father, Jack DeMave Sr., was a famous heavyweight boxer and the original “Golden Boy.” He stepped in the ring twice against Macon’s own W.L. “Young”  Stribling, losing both bouts.

“He would tell me some of the things he had been in and, of course, I remember ‘Lassie’ as a child,’’ Elmore said. “The one I remembered most was Mary Tyler Moore. I said, ‘Oh, my God. I watched you when I was younger. That is so wild.’ ’’

DeMave thought so highly of actress Mary Tyler Moore, he named his dog Tyler.

“I would look back at some of his old movies …  and there he was,’’ McDuffie said. “I don’t know why he didn’t stand out when I watched them before because he was so handsome. I have always been a movie buff, and I loved hearing about Hedy Lamarr and all those other famous movie stars. He couldn’t believe some of these young people had never heard of Doris Day.’’

Camille DeMave was born in Macon on Jan. 12, 1929. She grew up on Vineville Avenue at the corner of Kenmore Place, not far from the Georgia Academy for the Blind. Her father, Walter Ellis Smith, worked for the National Biscuit Co., better known as Nabisco. Her mother, Henrietta, was a homemaker.

She graduated from Miller High School for Girls and left home at 19. She took the train to New York, where she captured the attention of two top modeling agencies, Eileen Ford and Huntington
Hartford.

She met DeMave at a fashion show at the prestigious Hattie Carnegie’s Couture. Among those in the audience were Jack Benny, Grace Kelly and George Burns. Before she married DeMave, she   dated singer Elvis Presley and actor Cary Grant.

Her relationship with DeMave was put on hold for a few years as she split time between the fashion houses of New York and film sets of Hollywood.

 She worked as an assistant producer on the “Perry Mason Show.” She became an assistant to well-known producer Robert Arthur and director George Roy Hill. She worked with actors John Wayne, Dean Martin and Jimmy Stewart.

She was with Hill when he won an Oscar for “The Sting” and she also worked with him on one of his most popular movies, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  She was an assistant director on “The World According to Garp,’’ and “Funny Farm.’’

The DeMaves spent 45 years in show business, their careers shuttling from New York and Los Angeles. In Southern California, they lived in Studio City – about 10 minutes from Universal, 15 minutes from Warner Brothers and around the corner from CBS.

The Keas met the couple shortly after the DeMaves moved to Carlyle Place. 

“We gave them a new resident’s package,’’ Mary Dale Kea said. “Camille was so sick she could barely walk. Jack looked after her until the very end.’’

Don Kea said they knew nothing about their Hollywood background before meeting them. DeMave often would present a slideshow of his acting career for residents in the ballroom at Carlyle. He called it “A Beautiful Life.’’

“He was always finding things to add to it,’’ Don Kea said. 

 Following his wife’s death, DeMave continued to live in Macon. He made many friends at Carlyle and learned to appreciate the slower pace. The DeMaves did not have children.

“He was compassionate and caring,’’ Elmore said. “When my mom died, he was the first person to show up in my office with a card.’’  

Elmore said he called her “Sunshine.’’ He could always be seen entertaining friends in the dining room at what became known as “Jack’s
Table.’’

“Everybody wanted to be at the celebrity’s table, but what was so wonderful about Jack was that he included everybody,’’ McDuffie said. “He never knew a stranger. If he saw a new person come in, he would invite them to his table. He was interested in everyone.’’

“He was a very affable fellow,’’ Don Kea said. “He loved to party. He loved socializing. He was always delighted to be the host if he was asked.’’

DeMave had a passion for music and took a keen interest in the McDuffies – Macon’s “First Family” of music. McDuffie is a longtime piano instructor and church organist. Her son, Robert, is a world-renowned violinist and founder of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer. 

Her daughter, Margery McDuffie Whatley, is an accomplished pianist.

McDuffie said she will never forget the time her twin granddaughters were visiting, and she asked DeMave to recite some Shakespeare from his roles on Broadway and other theatre productions.

“He jumped up from the sofa … and he was in another world,’’ she said. “I got so tickled. You should have seen him get into character when he was doing Shakespeare.’’

Don Kea said DeMave was thrilled when he was asked to be in the Cherry Blossom Festival fashion show in 2015 and parade in 2019.

“He wore my pink coat in the parade, and it rained,’’ Kea said. “I never could wear it again.’’

Mary Dale Kea said DeMave’s nephew, Tom
McDonald, looked after his uncle’s personal affairs.

“Jack never kept a calendar,’’ she said, laughing. “Tommy took care of the details of his life … so Jack could be Jack.’”