John Spencer, the Emmy Award winning actor who specialized in tough, streetwise characters in both film and television, died of a heart attack at on December 16 at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 58.

He was born John Speshock on December 20, 1946, in New York City. The only child of a working-class family, his parents relocated to the blue collar city of Paterson, New Jersey when John was still a toddler. Although neither of his parents went to High School, John worked on his education, and at one point, went to the Professional Children's School in New York City where Liza Minnelli was a classmate.

He landed his first significant part when he was just 17, in the second season of The Patty Duke Show (1964-65), playing Patty Duke's boyfriend. After his initial television run, he returned to the East Coast to attend New York University, but dropped out of school so he could concentrate on finding stage work.

Throughout the '70s, Spencer worked in regional theater, and scored his first triumph in 1981, when he won an Obie Award (the Off-Broadway equivalent to the Tony Award) as a returning Vietnam veteran in the play Still Life. After this, film parts opened up, including the role of a grunt soldier in the Matthew Broderick vehicle WarGames (1983).

The remainder of the '80s saw Spencer playing downtrodden police officials in television: Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire; and film: Sea of Love (1989), Black Rain (1989); but the turning point came in 1990, when he played a loyal detective to Harrison Ford in the courtroom drama Presumed Innocent, comic relief to Andie MacDowell and Gerard Depardieu in the romantic comedy Green Card and his role as rough talking lawyer Tommy Mullaney for the final four season of the hit show L.A. Law (1990-94).

After his series ended, Spencer returned to the silver screen as a solid character performer, and enlivened such routine fare as the Nicolas Cage action flick The Rock (1996); the Sylvester Stallone drama Cop Land (1997); and the private-eye homage starring Paul Newman, Twilight (1998).

In 1999, Spencer scored his biggest triumph on television when he was cast as Leo McGarry in NBC's acclaimed program The West Wing. His character, who is the White House Chief of Staff, and often confidant to the President (Martin Sheen), stole the show namely because of Spencer's smooth mix of sophistication, humor and dogged toughness. He would receive five Emmy nominations for his performances, and bag the trophy in 2002. Spencer is survived by many cousins, aunts and uncles.

by Michael T. Toole