- Jay 'Flash' Riley in La pecora nera (1968)
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He was born James Merriman Riley on June 24th 1916 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.[1]
He began his acting career in 1932 and first appeared on Broadway in 1941 in Orson Welles production of The Native Son. He appeared in a number of major Broadway musical productions in the 1940's including Carmen Jones, On the Town and Finian's Rainbow.
He turned up in Italy in the early 1960's to appear in the international production of Cleopatra and wound up staying there until the mid-1970's, appearing sporadically in small roles in films, mostly uncredited, and forming his own theatre troupe with which he successfully toured Europe. While in Italy he was also involved with English dubbing.
As told to Johan Melle, Rodd Dana described him as: "an interesting and very funny, bright and charismatic gentleman by the odd name of Flash Riley. A delightful fellow from New York. Didn’t do a lot, but when he was in the sala, I remember it was a party of jokes and ha-ha’s that would go on for hours. An absolute ‘wild-man’. Mel Welles used to call him the ‘Madder than the Hatter Flash-er-oony’, while Roger Browne said of him: "Another was Jay Riley, dancer and entertainer. Jay was loved by all! When he entered a room, everyone started laughing and clapping. He told of once that he was dancing across the stage when his G-string broke. Brought down the house. I backed one of his revues and actually got my money back! He was also in one of my films, shot in Switzerland."
By 1975 he was back in the US, where he would remain for the rest of his life, appearing in sporadic small roles in films and TV, as well as several more big Broadway musical productions such as The Wiz and Bubbling Brown Sugar. His last-known screen appearances date from 1988.
Jay died in Los Angeles on September 20th 1988, at the age of 72.
A big thanks to Johan for his invaluable input identifying roles and providing information for Jay's biography.
Filmography
- Cleopatra .... Reveller (uncredited)
1965 - Superseven chiama Cairo .... Henchman (uncredited)
1966 - Il grande colpo dei 7 uomini d'oro .... One of the general's soldiers (uncredited)
- Le spie amano i fiori .... Jay Morgan (uncredited)
- The She Beast .... The She Beast (credited as "Jay Riley")
1967 - Peggio per me... meglio per te .... Party guest (uncredited)
1968 - La pecora nera .... Félix Désiré Tombalassa (credited as "James Riley")
1974 - Moses the Lawgiver (TV mini-series) Ep. 2 .... Overseer of slaves (uncredited)
1975 - Good Times (TV series) S. 3, ep. 8: "Michael's Big Fall" .... Mr. Jenkins (credited as "Jay Merreman Riley")
- Sanford and Son (TV series) S. 5, ep. 12: "Ebenezer Sanford" .... Mr. Small (credited as "Jay Merreman Riley")
1976 - The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (TV movie) .... Man in park (credited as "Jay M. Riley")
1981 - Taxi (TV series) S. 3, ep. 16: "Louie bumps into an Old Lady" .... Judge (credited)
- The White Shadow (TV series) S. 3, ep. 8: "Mister Hero" .... Card player (credited)
1987 - A Gathering of Old Men (TV movie) .... Jameson (credited)
- Frank's Place (TV series) S. 1, ep. 5: "Frank joins the Club" .... Mr. Broussard (credited)
1988 - A Year in the Life (TV series) S. 1, ep. 21: "Peter Creek Road" .... Porter (credited)
- Memories of Me .... Tango (credited)
Titles to check
- I dannati della terra (1970) History.sffs.org
No Flash!
Titles where Jay is listed as appearing somewhere online, but cannot be found. There always has to be one!
- Electric Angel (1981) IMDb with no role. There is a "Jay Riley" credited, however our man is nowhere to be seen and the film was shot entirely in Greece at a time when our man was resident in the US, so the credit presumably belongs to another actor.
| 1. Much of Jay's biographical information comes from his profile on the website for the Online Archive of California |