Jack Dodson

John Smeaton "Jack" Dodson was born on May 16, 1931, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and died on September 16, 1994, in Los Angeles, California, from heart failure at the age of 63. He was an American actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1964 to 1983, and who became widely recognized on television for his portrayal of Howard Sprague on The Andy Griffith Show and its spin-off Mayberry R.F.D. From 1959 until his death, Dodson was married to television art director Mary Dodson, who was the younger sister of actor Fritz Weaver and who died on February 15, 2016.

Dodson's Broadway work directly shaped one of his most significant television opportunities. Andy Griffith saw him performing in the Broadway production of Hughie and subsequently cast him in the recurring role of Howard Sprague in 1966. Before settling into that character, Dodson first appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as insurance agent Ed Jenkins in the episode "Lost and Found." The Howard Sprague role continued beyond the original series, with Dodson reprising the character in the 1986 NBC television movie Return to Mayberry and again in a 1990 episode of It's Garry Shandling's Show titled "The Day Howard Moved In."

Beyond his association with Mayberry, Dodson accumulated an extensive list of television credits. He appeared in four episodes of Barney Miller, including the 1975 episode "Horse Thief," the 1979–80 season six episode "Guns," and the two-part season seven episode "Homicide." During the 1976–77 season, he appeared in all 24 episodes of the CBS romantic sitcom All's Fair, playing Wayne Joplin, a slightly bumbling Democratic senator from an unspecified rural state, in a show set in Washington, D.C., that lasted one season. In the late 1970s, he took on a recurring role as Mickey Malph, the optometrist father of Ralph Malph, on Happy Days. In January 1979, he played Bernie, a hard-of-hearing acquaintance of the character Mark, in a comic restaurant scene on One Day at a Time. His other television appearances included episodes of My Friend Flicka, Hazel, The Virginian, Maude, Welcome Back Kotter, Archie Bunker's Place, Newhart, Mr. Belvedere, Matlock, St. Elsewhere in a recurring role, and Mama's Family, where he played a bus depot attendant named Gus in the episode "Steal One Pearl Two." In 1967, he appeared in the NBC series The Road West in the episode "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord," and in 1973 he played an airplane passenger caught up in a murder plot in an episode of Hawaii Five-0.

Dodson also maintained a presence in film throughout his career. He played Norman Gresham in the 1969 film Angel in My Pocket and appeared in two films directed by Sam Peckinpah: The Getaway in 1972 and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in 1973. In 1974, he had a small role in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. His later film work included Something Wicked This Way Comes in 1983 and A Climate for Killing in 1991.

On Broadway, Dodson appeared in Hughie and returned to the stage in 1983 in the revival of You Can't Take It with You, bookending a Broadway career that had begun in 1964.