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1-14 of 14
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
A remarkably seasoned actor of stage, screen and television, Darren McGavin has notched in excess of 200 performances; however, he is most fondly remembered by cult TV fans as heroic newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak in the classic but short-lived horror TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974). In a long and varied career, McGavin has often turned up as authority figures including policemen, military officers, stern-faced business executives or father figures; however, he is equally adept at light-hearted comedic performances.
Darren McGavin was born William Lyle Richardson on May 7, 1922, in Spokane, Washington, to Grace Mitton (Bogart) and Reed D. Richardson. His mother was from Ontario, Canada. He received his dramatic arts training at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio, and debuted on screen in an uncredited role in A Song to Remember (1945). Several standard roles followed over the next decade before he landed the key role of Louie the drug pusher in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and Capt. Russ Peters in The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), both directed by Otto Preminger. Each of these performances showcased McGavin's versatility, and his virile looks scored him the role of Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled private eye in Mike Hammer (1958).
McGavin stayed continually employed throughout the 1960s, appearing in such films as The Great Sioux Massacre (1965), The Outsider (1967), The Challengers (1970) and The Tribe (1970). In addition, he was regularly guest-starring in dozens of TV shows, including Gunsmoke (1955), Dr. Kildare (1961), Mission: Impossible (1966) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). In 1971 he landed the role of cynical reporter Carl Kolchak in the low-budget horror thriller The Night Stalker (1972), about a vampire running amok in Las Vegas. The film was a monster ratings winner (pun intended!) and the highest-rated telemovie of 1972, and original scriptwriters were soon hard at work on a punchier sequel. The Night Strangler (1973) saw Kolchak in Seattle (after being booted out of Las Vegas by the police), and this time on the trail of a serial killer seeking the elixir of eternal youth. The second movie was equally successful, and spawned the short-lived TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) with Simon Oakland as McGavin's long-suffering editor and a host of weekly guest stars including Jim Backus, Phil Silvers, Richard Kiel, Tom Skerritt, Scatman Crothers and Larry Storch.
"Kolchak" only lasted one season, but it became a bona-fide cult classic, and many years later its premise of "the unknown amongst us" inspired writer Chris Carter to create the phenomenally successful long-running TV series The X-Files (1993), which saw McGavin guest-star in several episodes.
McGavin remained busy throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, appearing in Airport '77 (1977), as Gen. George S. Patton in the TV miniseries Ike: The War Years (1979), alongside Rock Hudson in the uneven sci-fi miniseries The Martian Chronicles (1980) and a few years later endeared himself to to a whole new generation of fans with his superb performance as the vitriolic, yet buffoonish, father in the delightful Christmas classic A Christmas Story (1983). The always versatile McGavin also popped up as a detective in Turk 182 (1985), assisted Arnold Schwarzenegger in cleaning up the mob in Raw Deal (1986) and was a doctor in the bizarre zombie/cop/zombie cop film Dead Heat (1988).
At this point it's worth mentioning that, along with his film and TV work, McGavin has also enjoyed an illustrious career on the stage, with appearances in dozens of critically acclaimed productions across the length and breadth of the US. He has appeared in stage presentations of "Death of a Salesman", "The Rainmaker", "The King and I" and "Blood Sweat & Stanley Poole", to name a few.
In 1990 the opportunity arose for McGavin to play another somewhat stern, yet comedic, father figure, this time as "Bill Brown" to Candice Bergen in the much loved sitcom Murphy Brown (1988). McGavin was again wonderful, and his entertaining performances resulted in an Emmy Award nomination in 1990. Several other film roles followed in the 1990s, in such films as Adam Sandler's hit Billy Madison (1995). He died on 25th February 2006 at the age of 83.- Joe Lo Presti was born on 15 May 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Mannix (1967), I Spy (1965) and The Untouchables (1959). He died on 25 February 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
Arthur Stephens was born on 25 July 1920 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor. He died on 25 February 2006 in Oceanside, California, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Tom Brennand was born on 10 July 1929 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK. Tom was a writer, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Special Branch (1969) and Man at the Top (1970). Tom died on 25 February 2006 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK.- Charles Randall was born on 15 March 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Lights Out (1946), Enemy Territory (1987) and Natural Enemies (1979). He died on 25 February 2006 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Additional Crew
He was a Linguist, historian, educator, and author whose investigations laid bare the full horror of the Holocaust.
He moved with his family in 1927 to Baden-Baden. In1935, on the urging of British friends, he and his brother were sent to England as boarders at King's College. His own father, Artur Flehinger, with photographs of the events of Kristallnacht, the government-sanctioned reprisals against Jews on the night of November 9 1938, in Baden-Baden, culminating in the destruction of the local synagogue and the removal of Jewish men to Dachau. His father was released due to pressure on the government from Rotarian friends, and he emigrated with the family to Britain.
At the start of the second world war, Fleming was interned in Canada, but he later returned to Britain to work in a munitions factory in Yorkshire. He then trained as a language teacher, graduating after a year at the Sorbonne in 1949. By now he was trilingual and perfectly acculturated in German, French and English. He became head of modern languages at William Penn school, Dulwich, south London.
Fleming's appreciation of the ways in which prejudice can be engendered led him to a critique of visual propaganda and political cartoons, and at Surrey he introduced courses on humour and satire, analysing, in particular, the work of George Grosz, satirist of the Weimar republic and the Third Reich. Fleming's analysis of this area was quite a serious business, designed to expose the finely nuanced differences between German, French and English cultural attitudes to ridicule. His style throughout was decisive and emphatic.
After he left Surrey, his reputation in the field of Holocaust studies led to his appointment in 1988 to the international commission of historians investigating the war record of Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary general who was then president of Austria. Waldheim had become unwelcome in many countries outside his homeland; the commission found no evidence of his involvement in war crimes, though it concluded that he may have known more than he was by that point willing to admit.
In 1993, Fleming was made a master of the University of Surrey, and awarded an honorary doctorate of letters in recognition of his scholarship.- Florian Zabach was born on 15 April 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He died on 25 February 2006 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Imette St.Guillen was born on 2 March 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She died on 25 February 2006 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
- Composer
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Thomas Koppel was born on 27 April 1944 in Örebro, Örebro län, Sweden. He was a composer and writer, known for Lykken er en underlig fisk (1989), Hvem myrder hvem? (1978) and Pain of Love (1992). He was married to Annisette Hansen. He died on 25 February 2006 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.- Margaret Gibson Gilboord was born on 4 June 1948 in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. She was a writer, known for Outrageous! (1977), Too Outrageous! (1987) and Canada After Dark (1978). She was married to Stuart Gilboord and Juris Rasa. She died on 25 February 2006 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Clifford Fearl was born on 17 February 1916 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Orphans (1987), That's Adequate (1989) and Snow White Live (1980). He died on 25 February 2006 in San Diego, California, USA.
- Jack Lazare was primarily an East Coast radio personality during the heyday of the Big Bands and the early days of rock and roll; for a number of years, he was the host of the "Milkman's Matinee" on WNEW radio in New York City. After studying communications at Berkeley, Lazare served in the U.S. Navy as a fighter pilot during World War II, and served as executive director for programming for the Voice of America before entering on his radio career. He was also, for a time, the New England representative of the Screen Actors Guild.
- Henry M. Morris was born on 6 October 1918 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He died on 25 February 2006.
- Yuri Motsarev was born in 1933. He was an actor, known for Mersedes ukhodit ot pogoni (1980). He died on 25 February 2006.