Jay North, a child star who played “Dennis the threat”, dies at 73

Jay North, who played the well -intentioned protagonist and provoking problems with the popular Sitcom CBS “Dennis the threat” from 1959 to 1963, died on Sunday at his home in Lake Butler, Florida. He was 73 years old.

His death was confirmed by Laurie Jacobson, a friend of Mr. North for 30 years. The cause was colorectal cancer, said Jacobson.

Mr. North played the Towhed Dennis Mitchell, who traveled his neighborhood, generally dressed in a shirt and a striped overalls, with his friends, and often exasperated his neighbor, a retiree by the name of George Wilson, who was played by Joseph Kearns. Herbert Anderson played the father of Dennis and Gloria Henry played his mother.

Dennis ends up causing a lot of problems, generally by accident.

In an episode, a truck overturns a street sign, and Dennis and a friend are wrong. The workers then dig a gigantic hole, supposed to be a swimming pool for a different address, in Mr. Wilson’s courtyard.

The show, which was adapted from a comic strip of Hank Ketcham, presented an idyllic and innocent vision of suburban America while the 1950s gave way to the tumultuous 60s.

But things were not easy for Mr. North behind the scenes.

Many years after the end of “Dennis the threat”, North said that his acting success had taken place at the award of a happy childhood.