John Spencer (actor)
John Spencer (born John Speshock Jr.; December 20, 1946 – December 16, 2005) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series "The West Wing". His performance on the show earned him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2002. Early life. John Spencer was born John Speshock, Jr., on December 20, 1946, in New York City, and was raised in Totowa, New Jersey. He was the son of blue-collar parents Mildred (née Benzeroski), a waitress, and John Speshock, Sr., a truck driver. Spencer's father was of  Irish and Czech descent, while his mother was of Ukrainian and Rusyn ancestry. With his enrollment at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan in 1963, Spencer found himself sharing classes with such fellow students as Liza Minnelli and violinist Pinchas Zukerman. He attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, but did not complete a degree. Spencer often referred to himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool liberal" and described Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of his heroes. Career. Spencer began his television career on "The Patty Duke Show", and eventually began appearing in supporting roles in feature films commencing with 1983's  WarGames. He won an Obie Award for the 1981 off Broadway production of "Still Life", about a Vietnam War veteran, and received a Drama Desk nomination for "The Day Room". In 1986 he appeared on Broadway as Dan White, the killer of Harvey Milk, in "Execution of Justice", alongside Stanley Tucci and Wesley Snipes. Spencer became a full-fledged supporting actor with the hit 1990 courtroom thriller "Presumed Innocent", portraying a tough veteran homicide detective, starring opposite Harrison Ford. The same year, Spencer joined the cast of the television series "L.A. Law", playing rumpled, pugnacious, street-wise trial attorney Tommy  Mullaney. Spencer's work also extended to video games, portraying the role of Captain Hugh Paulsen in the 1995 video game "". Spencer's subsequent film and television work primarily consisted of supporting roles such as a colleague and friend to Billy Crystal's basketball ref in "Forget Paris" and a prickly FBI official in Michael Bay's film "The Rock". In 1999, Spencer was cast as Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series "The West Wing". Spencer's character was White House Chief of Staff to fictional U.S. President Josiah Bartlet; like Spencer, McGarry was a recovering alcoholic. Spencer 's role on the show earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2002, for the show's third season episodes "Bartlet for America" and "We Killed Yamamoto." Death. Spencer died of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital on December 16, 2005, four days before his 59th birthday. At his private funeral, his "West Wing" castmate, Kristin Chenoweth, sang the musical number "For Good" from the Broadway musical "Wicked". Spencer's remains were interred at Laurel Grove Memorial Park in his hometown of Totowa, New Jersey. At the time of his  death, Spencer had filmed two "West Wing" episodes that were in post-production – "Running Mates" and "The Cold" – in which he and Jimmy Smits played candidates for vice president and president, respectively.