Roy Jenson getting kicked by James Coburn’s Derek Flint
One in an occasional series
Roy Jenson is one of the most famous actors you’ve never heard of.
If you look at his IMDB.com bio, you’ll see one of the most famous scenes of 1974’s Chinatown, where Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes is about to get his nose cut wide open. For our purposes, he was a frequent presence in 1960s spy entertainment, including The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (the pilot episode and a two-part fourth-season story), Our Man Flint, The Ambushers (the third Dean Martin Matt Helm movie), Mission: Impossible, I Spy and The Wild Wild West.
Born in 1927 in Calgary, Jenson for a time played professional football in the Canadian Football League. At 6-foot-2, at a time it wasn’t common to encounter somebody that tall, he eventually found work as a stunt performer and bit part player. When the 1960s spy craze commenced in U.S. television, Jenson found frequent work as secondary villains.
The actor died in 2007 at the age of 80. To view his IMDB.com bio, CLICK HERE.
Filed under: The Other Spies | Tagged: Chinatown, Dean Martin, HMSS's favorite character actors, I Spy, James Coburn, Mission: Impossible, Our Man Flint, Roy Jenson, The Ambushers, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, The Wild Wild West |
The Spy Command 
Jenson also turned in an awesome performance in 1966’s “Harper,” opposite Paul Newman. Through his performance, his character was hinted at being a homosexual, and an outright gay performance was forbidden in 1966. Jenson sold it with sly grins, vocal patterns and slight hand movements. Just an outstanding actor. He is one of my favorite heavies. Loved him in “I Spy,” too.