We have some sad news to pass along: Friday the 13th actor Jack Marks has died. Marks, who played Deputy Winslow in the classic horror sequel Friday the 13th Part 2, died on Feb. 17. His co-star Bill Randolph shared word of his death on Facebook. He was 86 years old.
According to Marks’ wife Linda, with whom he’d been married for 39 years, Marks died after a “long, slow decline” from congestive heart failure. He had been receiving hospice care in Brooklyn before spending his last two years at home “managing to enjoy his increasingly sedentary existence.”
“Jack had a substantial acting career, both before and after we moved to Westbeth, twenty-odd years ago,” Linda says in an obituary written for her husband. “He mostly did off-Broadway and regional theatre. His biggest venues were touring nationally as the father in Briton Beach Memoirs and dying heroically in the movie Friday the 13th Part 2. He was proudest of his starring dual performance in Athol Fugard’s play, Valley Song, which he performed on Martha’s Vineyard. He also relished performing the old man, Lazar Wolf, in three different out-of-town productions of Fiddler on the Roof.”
Marks had a particularly memorable role in Friday the 13th Part 2. Just the third victim of Jason Voorhees, Marks’ Deputy Winslow was introduced in the film as a police officer keeping an eye on the goings-on around the movie’s setting, Packanack Lodge. While pursuing Jason through the woods, Winslow discovers the killer’s hidden shack, where he is attacked with a hammer.
Because of his part in Friday the 13th history, Marks has always had a special place with horror fans. After stepping away from acting, Marks had found enjoyment in writing, producing “hundreds of vibrant short stories” and poems. We send our condolences to Linda Marks and the rest of Marks’ family and friends at this time. May he rest in peace.
