Josip Elic (born Joseph Elich Jr.; March 10, 1921 – October 21, 2019) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as Bancini in the film ''

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may refer to: * ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Ken Kesey * ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (play), a 1963 stage adaptation of the novel starring Kirk Douglas * ''One Flew Over the ...

'' (1975).

Early life

Elic was born in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the 2 ...

, the son of

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n immigrants, Martha and Joseph Elich. One of several children, including siblings John and Helen, he grew up in the East Side neighborhood known as "Cabbage Patch". At age 16, he began work in a Montana copper mine, before later joining the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. In 1945, following his service, and a brief stint on

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

, Elic relocated to New York City to pursue an acting career, using the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

to enroll in acting school. At the age of 30, he officially changed his name in homage to his Croatian roots. Initially entering show business by building sets for an Upstate Connecticut

summer stock In American theater, summer stock theater is a theater that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock ...

company, he eventually began appearing in

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

productions, including ''

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'' in 1954, alongside

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and

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Career

While off-Broadway shows and burlesque were amongst Elic's first forays into acting, in 1956, the 6-foot-3-inch Montanan landed his first television role on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

anthology series ''

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'', opposite

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and

Joe Mantell Joe Mantell ( Joseph Mantel; December 21, 1915 – September 29, 2010) was an American film and television actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as best friend Angie in the 1955 film ''Marty (film), ...

, in an episode directed by William A. Graham. While numerous minor television and film roles soon followed, Elic was also notable for his commercial appearances, becoming one of the first character actors to headline television ads, a role traditionally reserved for Hollywood's leading men. He later became more nationally recognized after two appearances on ''

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'', including in "

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" with

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed radio, theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" ...

. His breakout role however came when asked to appear as confused mental patient, Bancini, in

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

's 1975 classic, ''

''. Despite having few lines in the film, his major scene came in the form of an improvisation by

Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-de ...

for the patient's basketball game. In his words, Elic remembered the scene's development as: Although his film and television career began to dwindle by the late seventies, Elic's final on-screen performance was in 1989 for the

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action thriller, ''

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''. Regardless of his disappearance from television and theater screens however, he continued to maintain a strong presence in the acting community of New York, and would regularly make appearances at conventions to meet fans.

Personal life and death

Suffering a fall in his New York apartment, Elic briefly stayed at the home of his longtime friend, actress

Lee Meredith Lee Meredith (born Judith Lee Sauls, October 22, 1947) is an American actress. Biography On October 22, 1947, Meredith was born Judith Lee Sauls in River Edge, New Jersey, and grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. When she was 15, she joined the Man ...

, and her husband, Bert, before moving into the Brookdale Senior Living assisted-living residence in

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H, ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

. In October 2019, at the age of 98, Elic died of complications from his fall.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * Access date: October 26, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Elic, Josip 1921 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors American people of Croatian descent Male actors from Montana Male actors from Butte, Montana Military personnel from Montana United States Navy personnel of World War II