Dick Maugg, a California contractor whose career took an unexpected turn when he was cast as the silent, stone-faced Ed Jaymes in the
exceedingly popular 1980s advertisements for Bartles & Jaymes brand wine coolers, died July 28. He was 83.
The cause was cancer, his wife, Barbara Maugg, told the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, Calif. A formal announcement of his death was delayed by a cancer recurrence in the couple’s daughter about the same time. She died Oct. 4.
Mr. Maugg spent his career as a building contractor and developer, living with his wife in Santa Rosa. He became a household face thanks to a childhood friend, the late San Francisco advertising copywriter and executive Hal Riney.
Riney, one of the most vaunted figures in his trade, had been a creator of the “Morning in America” commercials that helped cement Ronald Reagan’s reelection in 1984. Not long afterward, Riney left his longtime home, Ogilvy & Mather, to form his own business and obtained winemaker E. & J. Gallo as a client.
Riney crafted fictional personas for the Gallo-made wine coolers. He cast Mr. Maugg as Ed Jaymes, the rail-thin and mute sidekick to the hefty and loquacious Frank Bartles. The series of advertisements were known for their homey style, often set on a country porch.
Bartles was portrayed by a rancher named David Rufkahr, who usually finished the ads with the line, “And thank you for your support,” which became a catchphrase. Rufkahr died in 1996.
