Dennis Rush, a former child actor known for his roles in TV’s The Andy Griffith Show and film’s Man of a Thousand Faces, has died. He was 74.
Rush, who was living near San Diego, California, was diagnosed with leukemia last month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He died on May 9 en route to a hospital, actor Keith Thibodeaux told the outlet.
The actor was born in Philadelphia on June 10, 1951, and at age 1 moved with his family to Los Angeles, where his father got a job as a film archivist for what was then Universal-International Pictures, THR reports.
Rush told the Los Angeles Times in 1989 that James Cagney approached him and his father while they ate lunch at the Universal commissary, saying he was looking for a young actor for a Man of a Thousands Faces.
“He had been casting for the part of a 5-year-old to play his son without any luck,” Rush said. “So he turns to my dad, says he’s looking for a kid to play his son and says, ‘Your son is the spitting image of me at that age.’”
Rush landed the part in that 1957 biopic of Lon Chaney, and as Cagney played the silent film star, Rush played the 4-year-old version of Lon’s son, Creighton Chaney, who later used the stage named Lon Chaney Jr.
From 1963 to 1965, Rush had a recurring part as Howie Pruitt, a friend of Opie Taylor (Ron Howard), on The Andy Griffith Show.
Thibodeaux, known by his stage name, Richard Keith, played Johnny Paul Jason, another of Opie’s pals, on The Andy Griffith Show but is better known for playing Little Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
“It took a normal show about five days to film. It took Andy Griffith three,” Rush told the Times. “On lunch breaks, we’d just run to the lunch truck and run back. Ronny Howard had a short basketball hoop set up for him, so we got pretty close to dunking. Andy and some of the others were pretty good guitar players, so it was a regular hootenanny right through lunch.”
Rush also had parts in multiple episodes of General Electric Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, and Laramie.
During the Vietnam War, Rush was drafted into the Marines and served in Hawaii, and when he returned home, he discovered his family had spent his Hollywood earnings, according to the Times. He attended the University of San Diego with plans to become a teacher, but he found better pay working as a maître d’ and bartender.
In recent years, Rush frequented Mayberry-themed conventions to meet Andy Griffith Show fans.
He is survived by siblings Sally, Monica, Patrick, and Megan, and was predeceased by brother Jack, who died in February, per THR.
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