James MacArthur, Danno on Original ‘Hawaii Five-0,’ is Dead at 72

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CHICAGO – James MacArthur, a stage and screen actor best known for playing the booking agent Danno in the 1960s version of the TV show “Hawaii Five-0,” died on October 28th, 2010, of natural causes. He was 72. HollywoodChicago.com interviewed MacArthur last March at the Hollywood Celebrities and Memorabilia Show.

MacArthur, the adopted son of theater icon Helen Hayes and playwright Charles MacArthur, made his stage debut at age eight in a summer stock production of “The Corn is Green.” He went on to television and the movies in the early 1960s, getting character parts in “Gunsmoke,” “Spencer’s Mountain,” “Swiss Family Robinson” and the Clint Eastwood western “Hang ‘Em High.” It was his role in that film that brought him to the attention of the producers of Hawaii Five-0.

From 1968 to 1979 MacArthur played cop sidekick Danno to Jack Lord’s Steve McGarrett on the Five-0 squad. MacArthur was not very complimentary to the show by end of his run – he left the show one year before it went off the air – “The stories became more bland and predictable and presented less and less challenge to me as an actor,” he said at the time of his departure. He was, however, part of one of the most memorable catchphrases in TV history, as McGarrett would intone as they caught another bad guy, “Book ‘em Danno.”


Book ‘Em: James MacArthur at the Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show,
Chicago, March 13th, 2010
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Here is the HollywoodChicago.com interview with James MacArthur, reprinted in full, conducted on March 13th, 2010…

HollywoodChicago.com: When you were starting your career, what advice did your famous mother, Helen Hayes, give you either about acting or the business in general?

James MacArthur: Show up on time and know your lines. [laughs] It was a start.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were fortunate enough through your mother’s connections to meet some of the greatest actors and literary figures of the 20th Century. Which of those legendary figures made the most impression on you, and what advantage to you have knowing them as individuals?

MacArthur: Well unfortunately when you’re young everybody older is just an adult, you don’t necessarily know their credentials. My mother might point somebody out and say he was wonderful, but I’d always say, ‘yeah, right.’ I did make a lot of great people who I got to know later, but how was I to know then? For example, I knew John Steinbeck through my father.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you were a star athlete, how is acting and performing in athletics similar and were you able to apply those similarities to your early career?

MacArthur: Not such a star athlete, but I did compete in everything. Same old thing, once the kick-off is up, and you’re running down the field and you hit that first player, the butterflies are gone. Same with the stage, when you say your first line, if you get it out, then you’re okay. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: In your early theater career, you also learned the ropes as a behind-the-scenes technician. How important, in your opinion, is it for an actor to know a little bit about all the contributions to a production?

MacArthur: Every little bit fills you out a little more, you learn more about the process. Lighting, backstage stuff, it’s part of the whole thing. I did all that stuff backstage and loved every minute of it. I was even chief of the parking lot. [laughs]

HollywoodChicago.com: Your appearance in the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Hang ‘Em High’ led to the role on Hawaii 5-0. What is the story about that circumstance?

MacArthur: My agent called me up and asked me if I wanted to do a cameo in an upcoming Western. I said I’d never done a cameo, but he said he thought I should do it. It was two days on the backlot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Eight months later, Leonard Freeman [Creator of Hawaii Five-0] called me after saying he’d seen me in the film. The next thing you know I was in Hawaii.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, tell us something about Jack Lord that nobody knows.

MacArthur: There is something nobody knows? [laughs] Jack was a controversial type of person. His one trouble in life was getting along with the press. If you didn’t get along with them, one would say one thing, and another would say another. And it wasn’t even as bad as it is today.

Source material for this article came from the Associated Press. Click here for the HollywoodChicago.com review of this TV season’s remake of “Hawaii Five-0.”
James MacArthur, 1937-2010. Book ‘em, Danno.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2010 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

David Smith's picture

5-O

Love that show as a kid. Goodbye Danno.

Sherrell's picture

James MacCarthur

I didn’t learn of the passing of James MacArthur until a year afterward in 2011. I’d always been a huge fan and was heartbroken when I saw the news on line. I’d not only had a school-girl’s screen crush on him since I saw him in the “Young Stranger” on TV, but loved his intelligence and innocence in Disney movies. I wouldn’t watch Hawaii Five-O because I thought Jack Lord didn’t treat him with enough respect. In December 2012, I ordered “Third Man on the Mountain,” and have watched it three times in a week. I wish I’d started being part of James’ fan club 50 years ago! He seems like such a good person on and off the screen. I sure miss him.

Vrinda's picture

Jack never mistreated James.

Jack never mistreated James. There is no evidence of it. I’m working on a book on Jack, and have interviewed many who worked on Hawaii Five-O, and no one saw any discord between them. Judging Jack based on rumor and innuendo is ignorant and unfair to him. You’re acting no better than the press.

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