David Huffman

David Oliver Huffman (May 10, 1945 – February 27, 1985) was an American actor and producer born in Berwyn, Illinois, to Clarence and Opal Huffman (née Dippel).

Huffman met casting director Phyllis Grennan while both were students at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the two married in 1967. They had two sons together and remained married until his death. Outside of his professional work, Huffman pursued several personal interests, including sailing, painting, and playing country-and-western guitar.

His Broadway career included the role of Don Baker in Butterflies Are Free, which ran from October 21, 1969, through July 2, 1972. At the time of his death, Huffman was appearing in a production of Of Mice and Men at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and was scheduled to begin work on the television miniseries North and South the following week.

On the morning of February 27, 1985, Huffman had visited the Old Globe Theatre to share cookies with the cast and crew and was afterward sitting in his van near the theatre playing his bagpipes. He witnessed Canadian tourist Jack Beamer confront 16-year-old Genaro Samano Villanueva, who had earlier been taken into San Diego police custody for attempting to steal a car radio and had subsequently left school and gone to Balboa Park, where Beamer spotted him inside a motor home belonging to Beamer's friends. After Villanueva fled, Huffman pursued him by vehicle, parked near the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, and followed him into the park on foot. A physical altercation ensued, during which Villanueva stabbed Huffman twice in the chest with a screwdriver. Huffman died of exsanguination, likely within 30 to 45 seconds. His body was discovered less than an hour later in a Palm Canyon crevice by a group of children, though a positive identification was not made until later that night.

On March 2 and 3, Crime Stoppers produced a televised reenactment of the crime that also appeared in several national newspapers. The Canadian tourists whose motor home had been burglarized recognized Huffman's photograph and contacted police. Villanueva was arrested on March 12 after an officer identified him from a composite sketch provided by the Canadian tourist. On June 24, 1986, Villanueva was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison and admitted to the California State Prison, Centinela. A parole hearing on December 9, 2011, resulted in a denial of parole for 15 years.