J. Aubuchon; Stage, Film and TV Actor

Jacques Aubuchon, an imposing presence on stage and television for more than 45 years, has died.

His daughter-in-law, Joanna Lipari Aubuchon, said he was 67 and died Saturday of heart failure.

Born to French parents in Fitchburg, Mass., Aubuchon made more than 300 TV shows and two dozen films in his career, while also appearing on local stages in such productions as “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” in 1970 at the Mark Taper Forum.

He portrayed characters as diverse as a peasant in a Hollywood stage production of “Rashomon” and a loincloth-clad native chief in the TV series “McHale’s Navy.”

Additionally, he was the brandy-loving, hefty detective Lt. Jules Maurola in the 1970 TV series “PAris 7000,” which starred George Hamilton.

His films included “The Silver Chalice,” as the Emperor Nero, “Thunder Road,” “McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force” and “The Hoax.”

In 1981, he starred in what 20th Century Fox said was the first film ever made for pay TV, a pilot for a series called “The Public’s Polinsky” about a public defender with a penchant for lost causes.

Later, he turned to playwriting. His comedy “Pepere” (“Grandfather”) was a finalist in the South Coast Repertory play contest two years ago.

Aubuchon--whose first Broadway stage credit was as the sewer man in “The Madwoman of Chaillot”--also did hundreds of TV commercials, something he once said gave him “freedom to turn down things.” “There was a time when I couldn’t afford to turn down anything,” he said, paying homage to the many commercials he did for Saturday morning children’s TV shows.

He is survived by his wife, Denise, two sons, one daughter and one grandchild.

Services will be private. A memorial service is pending at Theatre West.

Contributions in his name may be made to the Actors’ Fund.