Jon "Jay" Thomas Terrell (July 12, 1948 â August 24, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976 to 1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in Los Angeles beginning in 1986 on KPWR "Power 106", where he hosted the station's top-rated morning show until 1993. His notable television work included his co-starring role as Remo DaVinci on Mork & Mindy (1979âÂÂ1981), the recurring role of Eddie LeBec, a Boston Bruins goalie on the downside of his career, on Cheers (1987âÂÂ1989), the lead character of newspaper columnist Jack Stein on Love & War (1992âÂÂ1995), and a repeat guest role as Jerry Gold, a talk-show host who becomes both an antagonist and love interest of the title character on Murphy Brown. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990 and 1991 for portraying Gold.
In 1997, he starred in the television film Killing Mr. Griffin, based on the eponymous novel. In films, he co-starred in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) as a high-school coach with a flair for theatrics, and portrayed the Easter Bunny in The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and ' (2006).
He was also an annual guest on the Late Show with David Letterman during the Christmas season, where he told a story about how he met Clayton Moore, who portrayed the title character on The Lone Ranger. Beginning in 2005, he hosted The Jay Thomas Show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel 94 comedy greats Monday through Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings on Howard 101.
Thomas was born in Kermit, Texas, to Katharine (née Guzzino) and Timothy Harry Terrell. He was raised in his Italian-American mother's Catholic religion; his father was Protestant. Thomas was raised in New Orleans, where he attended and graduated from Jesuit High School. He went on to attend and graduate from Jacksonville University. Thomas was the quarterback on his high-school football team and also quarterbacked in college, a skill he later used on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Thomas made annual Christmas appearances on David Letterman's CBS late night show, beginning in December 1998. Letterman and one of his other guests that evening, then-New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde, took turns throwing footballs trying to knock a large meatball off the top of a Christmas tree at the other end of the stage. As the two took turns futilely attempting to knock off the meatball, Thomas came back out to join in the festivities, and promptly knocked the meatball from the tree.
On a later visit to the show, Thomas related a story from his early radio days. He was working at WAYS (AM), a Top 40 station in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1972 and did a significant amount of promotional work. Thomas was scheduled to make an appearance at a local Dodge dealership alongside actor Clayton Moore, who would be appearing in character as The Lone Ranger as he would do regularly for Dodge's then-parent, Chrysler Corporation. Thomas and his colleague, Mike Martin, repeatedly stepped away from the festivities to smoke marijuana. After they had wrapped up their broadcast and appearances for the afternoon, both men noticed that Moore was still at the dealership with them as his ride back to his hotel never arrived.
According to Thomas, who described himself and Martin as being dressed like hippies with tie dyed shirts and long hair (Thomas claimed his was styled in a âÂÂwhite man's AfroâÂÂ), the two offered Moore a ride back to the hotel in Thomas' dilapidated, early 1960s vintage Volvo, which Moore accepted. While stuck in traffic, with Moore sitting quietly in the back seat, an impatient, middle-aged man backed his full-sized Buick into the front end of Thomas' Volvo, broke one of its headlights and switched lanes to exit the freeway.
Thomas and Martin then also exited the freeway and began chasing the driver of the Buick and eventually caught up to the man outside a restaurant, blocked his Buick with the Volvo, and confronted him about the broken headlight. The indignant driver denied all; when Thomas threatened to call police, the man exclaimed, "Who do you think they'll believe? Me, or you two hippie freaks?" Moore then emerged from the car in full Lone Ranger regalia and said, in character: "They'll believe me, citizen!" The stunned driver apologized and drove off.
For every year thereafter except 2013, Thomas appeared to repeat the Lone Ranger story, which Letterman called, "The best talk show story, ever", and once again attempt what Letterman would refer to as the "Late Show Quarterback Challenge". For his final appearance in December 2014, Thomas was again successful in knocking the meatball off the top of the tree. Thomas missed the 2013 Late Show Christmas episode due to throat surgery; John McEnroe took his place and told the Lone Ranger story, then tried, unsuccessfully, to knock the meatball off the tree by hitting tennis balls at it.
Thomas fathered J. T. Harding in an out-of-wedlock relationship, and the child was adopted by another family in Michigan. Thomas and his son spoke about their reunion on the Dr. Phil Show. Harding was the lead singer of the band JTX and is a country-music songwriter.
Thomas married Sally Michelson in 1987. They had two sons, Samuel and Jacob.
Jay Thomas died of throat cancer on August 24, 2017, surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 69.