'West Wing's' John Spencer Dies

Actor Won Emmy as Leo McGarry; Series Creative Team 'in Shock'

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 -- John Spencer, who played the tough and dedicated politico on "The West Wing" who survived a serious illness to run for vice president, died of a heart attack Friday. He would have been 59 next week.

Spencer played Leo McGarry, chief of staff to President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen), on the NBC series. In a sad parallel to life, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.

The character recovered and was picked as a running mate for Democratic presidential contender Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits; the campaign against Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) has been a central theme for the drama this season.

NBC and producer Warner Bros. Television issued a statement mourning Spencer's death but did not address in it how his loss would affect the Emmy Award-winning series, in production on its seventh season.

"Over the next week or so, the producers are going to try to figure out where they're going from here," a spokeswoman for Warner Bros. told The Washington Post's Chip Crews. "Scripts have to be ready when the show resumes January 4."

Spencer is in two of the five remaining episodes that have been shot but not aired, the spokeswoman said, but the creative team has not indicated how they might write McGarry out of the plot. "They're in shock. They're mourning today," she said.

"John was an uncommonly good man, an exceptional role model and a brilliant actor," Aaron Sorkin, who created the series, and Thomas Schlamme, one of the original executive producers, said in a joint statement. "We feel privileged to have known him and worked with him. He'll be missed and remembered every day by his many, many friends."

Series executive producer John Wells remembered Spencer not only for his acting but as "a generous and gracious friend."

Spencer, who also starred on "L.A. Law" as attorney Tommy Mullaney, received an Emmy for "The West Wing" in 2002 and was nominated four other times for the series.

The actor, whose world-weary countenance was perfect for the role of McGarry, mirrored his character in some ways: Both were recovering alcoholics and both, Spencer once said, were driven.

"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told the Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol, was acting."

As a teenager, Spencer landed a recurring role on "The Patty Duke Show" as the boyfriend of English twin Cathy. Stage and film work followed. Then his big break: playing Harrison Ford's detective sidekick in the 1990 courtroom thriller "Presumed Innocent."

Spencer won an Obie Award for the 1981 off-Broadway production of "Still Life," about a Vietnam veteran, and received a Drama Desk nomination for "The Day Room."

Service and funeral arrangements were pending, Spencer's publicist said. The Warner Bros. spokeswoman told The Post, "It's too early to think about a memorial episode."