The unexpected death of John Spencer on Friday is sure to alter the plot lines of “The West Wing,” the NBC show in which he was a star, but its writers do not expect to begin grappling with the creative implications of his loss until early in the new year, one of its executive producers said Sunday.
The producer, Lawrence O’Donnell, a former adviser in the U.S. Senate who has been with “The West Wing” since its inception, said the writers and actors were stunned by Spencer’s death from a heart attack and needed to grieve before addressing his character’s fate.
This season, the show’s seventh, Spencer’s Leo McGarry has been a critical character. McGarry, former chief of staff to the incumbent president, Josiah Bartlet, is the running mate of the Democratic candidate for president, Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.
So far this season, NBC has broadcast nine new episodes of the show. O’Donnell said five more episodes had been completed, including the next one – to be shown on Jan. 8 – titled “Running Mates,” which centers on Spencer’s character. The episode or episodes in which the election takes place have not yet been filmed, O’Donnell said, nor have producers said when the fictional election would be broadcast.
O’Donnell said the show’s staff had been on hiatus since Dec. 12 and that questions about whether the next episode would need editing – to say nothing of the larger question of how to deal with the loss of a vice-presidential candidate in the midst of a campaign – would not be broached until the next scheduled production meeting in early January.
“We recognize how important this kind of question is to viewers of the show,” O’Donnell said in a telephone interview. “It is very, very, very important to us. But it is a secondary issue, and we are not past the primary issue yet.”
Spencer, 58, played Leo since the show’s first season. His character was a crusty politician with a soft touch, one who survived a heart attack last season. He was as beloved a fixture backstage as he was on camera.
“He was my brother; that is the most I can say,” said Martin Sheen, who plays the president. “I just adored him. It’s too big a hole.” O’Donnell said that he, Sheen and other members of the close-knit cast had gathered informally over the weekend and found some solace in reminiscing with one another.
“Nobody could play tough better than John Spencer,” O’Donnell said. “But that was pure acting. He was the sweetest guy on the set, all the time.”
Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman, a colleague of Leo’s, said he considered Spencer “this dear, big brother.” “Acting saved his life, I think, a couple of times,” Whitford said. Spencer openly discussed his battle with alcoholism.
Raised in New Jersey, Spencer created memorable supporting roles, playing a detective in the 1990 film “Presumed Innocent” and Tommy Mullaney, a lawyer on TV’s “L.A. Law.” He won an Emmy for best supporting actor in 2002 for his “West Wing” work.
Plans for a memorial service were underway at press time.