Jack Axelrod, ‘General Hospital’ & ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Actor, Dies at 93

Jack Axelrod, an actor whose screen career lasted for nearly a half century, has died. He was 93 years old.

Axelrod’s rep said that the actor died of natural causes in Los Angeles on November 28, as The Hollywood Reporter announced on Friday.

The earliest entry in Axelrod’s filmography is his role as Arroyo in the 1971 Woody Allen comedy film Bananas. During the 1970s and 1980s, he had small roles in the TV shows Kojak, Hill Street Blues, Dynasty, Night Court, and Knots Landing.

He also starred as mob boss Victor Jerome on the ABC soap General Hospital between 1987 and 1989.

As the 20th century wrapped up, Axelrod guest-starred on Murphy Brown, Everybody Loves Raymond, Boy Meets World, and Dharma & Greg. In the new millennium, TV viewers saw him on Alias, Frasier, Malcolm in the Middle, Scrubs, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Gale Adler/ABC/Courtesy: Everett Collection

In Seasons 3 and 4 of Grey’s Anatomy, Axelrod recurred as Charlie Yost, a.k.a. Really Old Guy, a coma patient who woke up in time to give Seattle Grace intern Izzie (Katherine Heigl) some life advice before passing away.

More recently, the actor guest-starred in the TV shows Speechless, Station 19, No Activity, and Modern Family. His last screen credit was a part in the 2020 Alicia Silverstone dramedy Bad Therapy.

According to THR, Axelrod was born in Los Angeles on January 25, 1930, and served time in the U.S. Army in Germany for two years in the 1950s. He got an architecture degree at Berkeley but found another line of work after studying acting with Uta Hagen in New York for six years.

He later passed along his knowledge as a theater faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, Boston University, and Penn State, among other schools, and he was a guest instructor at Los Angeles’ Aaron Speiser Acting Studio.