A man was charged with murder in the stabbing of Jumanji and Top Gun: Maverick actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect’s mother.
Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged on Friday after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy stabbed in the chest and lying unconscious outside a home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Handy was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
Gledhill did not appear at an arraignment on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court and no plea was entered for him.
Javier Trincado, Gledhill’s lawyer, said his client was “unable to assist” in his defence and told the judge that the sheriff’s department did not bring Gledhill to the courtroom, but did not provide a reason.
Superior Court Judge John Reid ordered that Gledhill be sent to mental health court and undergo psychological evaluations. Another judge will decide whether he is competent for trial.
Authorities say Gledhill was arrested after telling police he was the person they were looking for. Police had responded to the home after a 911 caller said: “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the department.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Handy deserved to enjoy his later years with his loved ones and that the person who took his life should be held accountable.
“This is not how anyone’s life should end, stabbed in the chest and left dying in the front yard of a home,” he said in a statement.
This is not how anyone’s life should end
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman
Handy was a character actor in films and on TV for decades, including appearances in a variety of television crime procedurals.
Actor Brian Delate knew Handy for more than four decades after meeting him at a Vietnam veterans theatre company in New York. Delate described him as someone with a great sense of humour who was always curious.
Delate said that a few times over the past couple of years, Handy mentioned in passing that his girlfriend’s son had mental health problems.
“I didn’t think much of it, because he just kind of mentioned it casually,” he said.
Handy’s girlfriend had fixed up the garage so her son could live there, Delate said. Handy had his own home.
Bail was set at US$2 million for Gledhill, according to authorities. If convicted, Gledhill faces up to 26 years to life in prison, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Emails sent to Trincado and officials from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office were not immediately answered.
Born in New York, Handy appeared in films and TV shows for decades.
He was known for his role as an exterminator in the 1995 film Jumanji and more recently as the bartender Jimmy in the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick. He had also appeared in some of the top TV crime dramas, including NCIS: Los Angeles, The Closer and Cold Case.
“I could not have asked for a more talented, humble or gracious client and friend than James Handy,” Pam Ellis-Evenas, from the Ellis Talent Group, said in an email.
With Vietnam in mind, Delate lamented how his friend died.
“If he’d just passed away from an illness or something like that, this would be a very different experience,” he said. “But because of the nature of how he died and the fact that we lived in an arena of killing back in the 1960s, it has a different resonance.”