Whitney Rydbeck, the actor and mime who portrayed the last of the paintball victims in and one of the original crash test dummies in an iconic public service campaign that promoted seat belt safety, has died. He was 79. Rydbeck died Monday of complications from prostate cancer while in hospice care in Chatsworth, California, his longtime friend Tommy McLoughlin, the director on , told .
“We lost not only a truly funny comedian and actor ...
but one of the most good-hearted human beings I’ve ever known,” McLoughlin wrote in a tribute on Instagram. The lanky Rydbeck appeared on dozens of TV shows during his busy career, from , , , and to , , , and . In the sixth film, released in 1986, Rydbeck impressed as the comically nerdy Roy, who while wearing protective goggles over his regular glasses during a corporate paintball game.
He tries to run away, but he’s not going to survive. Like Jason, Rydbeck and Tony Reitano also donned masks, not for a movie but to play the crash test dummies Larry and Vince, respectively. Because they were foolish enough not to strap in, they bounced around in car accidents and suffered lots of damage — while supplying researchers with data on how passengers can escape injury.
The slapstick series of ads, which debuted in 1985, closed with the line, Whitney Wilbert Rydbeck was born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1945. He attended Pasadena High School, Pasadena City College and then Cal State Fullerton, where he studied theater. Starting in the ea.