Chilling surveillance footage from a property beside the home of actor James Handy showed his girlfriend’s son casually walking away from the scene moments before cops arrived to find the Hollywood star stabbed to death on his front lawn.
The veteran actor, who has nearly 150 film and television credits to his name, was discovered by police after a terrifying 911 sparked alarm and officers raced to his home on Erwin Street in Tarzana, California on Wednesday morning.
There, they found Handy, 81, unconscious in the front yard and suffering from a stab wound to the chest. The Jumanji star was then rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
‘With great sadness I can confirm that the gentleman who was attacked and killed on Wednesday in Tarzana was the actor James Handy,’ Handy’s talent agent, Pam Ellis-Evenas, said in a statement.
Michael Gledhill, 44, the son of Handy’s girlfriend who lived with them at the house, has since been arrested on suspicion of murder charges and is being held on a $2 million bond.
Authorities now claim Gledhill, himself, called 911 at around 9.30am on Wednesday, delivering a disturbing message.
‘I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,’ he allegedly told the Los Angeles Police Department.
But by the time police had arrived on the scene, Gledhill had casually walked away from the home.
Actor James Handy was found brutally murdered in his front yard on Wednesday
Officers raced to Handy’s home on Erwin Street in Tarzana, where they found the 81-year-old unconscious in the front yard and suffering from at least one stab wound to his chest
Surveillance footage from the scene caught a man casually walking past the suburban home
Security footage from a house next door obtained by Fox 11 Los Angeles showed him ambling down the sidewalk, as bloody clothes lay nearby.
He returned to the house a short time later, at which point police say Gledhill flagged down the responding officers – and told them he was the one they were looking for.
A motive for the attack remains unclear, but neighbors claimed Gledhill and Handy had been arguing overnight.
One resident also said told Fox 11 he believed Gledhill had been suffering from delusions prior to the attack on Wednesday.
The death was an eerie reminder of the brutal stabbing of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner by their disturbed son, Nick, just miles away in Hollywood.
Handy was born in New York City and made his first on-screen appearance in ABC’s Ryan’s Hope in 1977, the same year he appeared in the film Taps.
He most recently appeared in Top Gun: Maverick as the bartender, Jimmy.
Bloody clothes laid on the pavement outside Handy’s house following his brutal murder
The actor most recently appeared alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick
Handy’s other film credits include an appearance in Logan as the doctor who treated Hugh Jackman’s titular character
Handy is pictured as the exterminator in the film Jumanji
Handy’s other film credits include an appearance in Logan as the doctor who treated Hugh Jackman’s titular character, and in the 1995 hit Jumanji, Handy played the exterminator.
The actor also had recurring roles on shows like NYPD Blue, on which he played Captain Haverhill, on Alias, on which he played Arthur Devlin, and on Profile, on which he played Lou Handleman.
Handy made appearances on numerous other television shows as well including The West Wing, Castle and The X-Files.
Following the news of his death, Scott Alan Smith, professor of Performing Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design, shared how he directed Handy at the Road Theater Company of the Lyons in 2018.
‘Jim was not only a truly great actor, he was also a prince of a man – kind and generous and giving to his cast and audience,’ Smith recounted on Facebook.
Another woman, Nancy Lipner, recounted how Handy had been cast as her father in a play when they were both non-union actors in New York City.
‘He was only two or three years older than I, but somehow he brought it off, in large part because he was a terrific character actor and even though, as he told me, not particularly at home in anything resembling classic theatre,’ she wrote.
Handy is pictured in an episode of ABC’s hit show Castle, one of his many on-screen credits over his five-decade career
Handy appeared in the X-Files alongside David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson
‘I was so glad for how his career took off after The Verdict,’ she continued, noting that she had not spoken to Handy in years but would check his IMDB page from time to time to see how he was doing.
‘This is just awful,’ Lipner wrote.
Fans also took to social media to remember Handy for the many roles he played over the years.
‘James Handy was a great ’90s character actor – always delivered solid, memorable supporting work,’ one X user posted, noting that he was ‘reliable every time.’
Other X users called him a ‘fine character actor’ and ‘the ultimate “that guy” actor, with one fan writing that the first time he saw Handy ‘was in a small but effective role in the movie The Verdict.’
‘Rest in peace, James Handy – you were in everything,’ another netizen posted.
Social media users also lamented the tragedy of Handy’s death, with one X user writing: ‘Wow, Rob Reiner, now James Handy. Just crazy.’
Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Reiner, were found dead inside their home in December
In February their son Nick, 32, pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents
Renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were found dead with their throats slit inside their $13.5 million home in upscale Brentwood, California in December.
Their youngest son, Nick, 32, was later arrested in connection with their deaths.
He had been seen having a loud argument with his father at a holiday party thrown by TV’s Conan O’Brien just hours before his parents’ bodies were found.
It was their daughter, Romy, who made the grisly discovery inside the sprawling six-bedroom estate.
But Nick, who has a history of mental health issues, has pleaded not guilty to six felony charges, two of first degree murder, two of special circumstances involving multiple murder and two counts of special circumstances using a deadly weapon, a knife.
He remains behind bars prior to his next court appearance in September.
