MADRID, SPAIN – 2022/05/27: A street commercial advertisement poster from Paramount Pictures featuring Top Gun Maverick movie and American actor Tom Cruise in Spain. (Photo by Xavi Lopez/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
James Handy, a prolific character actor whose credits include Top Gun: Maverick, Logan, Jumanji, The Rocketeer and Arachnophobia, has died.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that they found Handy on Wednesday morning in front of his Tarzana, Calif., home with a stab wound to his chest. He was 81. The LAPD in a statement identified the suspect in the case as 44-year-old Michael Gledhill, who is a resident of Tarzana.
“On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, around 9:30 a.m., West Valley area patrol officers responded to a radio call of unknown trouble in the 19200 block of Erwin Street,” the LAPD said in the statement, released on Thursday. “The 911 caller stated, ‘I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin.’ Upon their arrival, officers discovered 81-year-old James Handy in the front yard of the residence, unconscious and suffering from a stab wound to his chest. The victim was transported to local hospital by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics, where he was pronounced deceased.”
Police said that Gledhill resided the location with his mother, who was Handy’s girlfriend.
The LAPD also said in the statement that Gledhill was arrested on suspicion of murder and booked, and is being held on $2 million bail.
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James Handy Had More Than 140 Screen Credits
Born James Michael Handy in New York City, the actor’s first screen credit was in a guest role in two episodes of the daytime drama Ryan’s Hope in 1977. His first film credit was as the sheriff in the 1981 military thriller Taps, which starred then-up-and-coming actors Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise.
Handy’s last credited screen role came in Cruise’s 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, where he played Jimmy the bartender. Among Handy’s other notable role