Darren McGavin
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| Darren McGavin | |
 McGavin as Carl Kolchak. |
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| Birth name | William Lyle Richardson |
| Born | May 7, 1922 Spokane, Washington |
| Died | February 25, 2006, age 83 Los Angeles, California |
| Years active | 1940-2006 |
| Spouse(s) | Kathie Browne Melanie York |
William Lyle Richardson (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006), who adopted the name Darren McGavin, was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and also his portrayal in the movie A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his sons overhear. He also appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the TV series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.
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[edit] Childhood
McGavin was born in Spokane, Washington, to Reid Delano Richardson and Grace McGavin. However, some sources list his birthplace as San Joaquin, California.
In magazine interviews during the 1960s, he stated that his parents divorced when he was very young and that his father, not knowing what else to do, put him in an orphanage at the age of 11. McGavin began to run away, often sleeping on the docks and in warehouses. He ended up in three orphanages. The last one was a boy's home, which turned out to be a safe haven for McGavin. He lived there for a few years where there were farm chores assigned, along with several other boys who were abandoned like himself. McGavin said that the owners of the home helped him to establish a sense of pride and responsibility, and that this helped to turn his life around.
[edit] Career
Still untrained as an actor, McGavin worked as a painter in the paint crew at the Columbia Pictures movie studios in 1945. When an opening became available for a bit part in A Song to Remember, the movie set on which he was working, McGavin applied for the role. He was hired for it, and that was his first foray into movie acting. (He had spent a year at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.) Shortly afterwards, he moved to New York City and spent a decade of learning the acting craft in TV and the plays there. McGavin studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio under the famous teacher Sanford Meisner and began working in live TV drama and on Broadway. A few of the plays in which he starred included "The Rainmaker" (where he created the title role on Broadway), "The King and I" and "Death of a Salesman".
McGavin returned to Hollywood and became a busy actor in a wide variety of TV and movie roles; in 1955 he broke through with roles in the films Summertime and The Man with the Golden Arm. Over the course of his career, McGavin starred in seven different TV series and guest-starred in many more; these roles on television increased in the late 1950s and early 1960s with leading parts in series such as Mike Hammer and Riverboat. He was also the top contender to replace Larry Hagman as the male lead of the television series I Dream of Jeannie.
McGavin was also known for his role as Sam Parkhill in the miniseries adaptation of The Martian Chronicles. He appeared as a regular in The Name of the Game in 1971 after Tony Franciosa was dismissed; he, Peter Falk, Robert Culp, and Robert Wagner stepped in to rotate in the lead role with Gene Barry and Robert Stack.
The first of his two best-known roles came in 1972, in the supernatural-themed TV movie The Night Stalker (1972). With McGavin playing a reporter who discovers the activities of a modern-day vampire on the loose in Las Vegas, the film became the highest-rated made-for-TV movie in history; and when the sequel The Night Strangler (1973) also was a strong success, a subsequent television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) was made. In the series, McGavin played Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter for a Chicago-based news service who regularly stumbles upon the supernatural or occult basis for a seemingly mundane crime; although his involvement routinely assisted in the dispelment of the otherworldly adversary, his evidence in the case was always destroyed or seized, usually by a public official or major social figure who sought to cover up the incident. He would write his ensuing stories in a sensational, tabloid style which advised readers that the true story was being withheld from them.
Kolchak was the inspiration for the series The X-Files and due to this, McGavin was asked to play the role of Arthur Dales, the man who started the X-Files, in three episodes: Season 5's "Travelers" and two episodes from Season 6, "Agua Mala" and "The Unnatural". Unfortunately, failing health forced him to withdraw from the latter, and the script (written and directed by series star David Duchovny) was rewritten to feature M. Emmet Walsh as Dales's brother, also called Arthur.
In 1983, he starred as "The Old Man," the narrator's father, in the movie A Christmas Story. Opposite Melinda Dillon as the narrator's mother, he portrayed an ornery, irascible working-class father, in an unnamed Indiana town in the 1940s, who was endearing in spite of his being comically oblivious to his own use of profanity and completely unable to recognize his unfortunate taste for kitsch. Blissfully unaware of his family's embarrassment by his behavior, he took pride in his self-assessed ability to fix anything in record time, and carried on a tireless campaign against his neighbor's rampaging bloodhounds.
McGavin made an uncredited appearance in 1984's The Natural as a shady gambler and appeared on a Christmas episode ("Midnight of the Century") of Millennium, playing the long-estranged father of Frank Black (Lance Henriksen); he also appeared as Adam Sandler's hotel-magnate father in the 1995 movie Billy Madison.
During the filming of "The Natural", Robert Redford was so pleased with McGavin's portrayal of his character that they began to expand the role. However, after a certain point, union rules dictated that the actor's contract needed to be renegotiated for salary and billing. After haggling on salary, and holding up production of the movie because of it, the billing had to be decided. McGavin became somewhat fed up with the proceedings and instructed his agent to waive his billing entirely so they could get back to filming.
He won a CableACE Award (for the 1991 TV movie Clara) and received a 1990 Emmy Award (see www.emmys.org) as an Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series on Murphy Brown, in which he played Murphy's father.
McGavin was married twice in long-term marriages:
- Melanie York (March 20, 1944 to 1969), producing four children (Bogart, York, Megan, and Bridget McGavin), ending in divorce;
- Kathie Browne (December 31, 1969 – April 8, 2003), ending in her death.
It is unclear whether McGavin was in military or naval service in World War II, although he was then in his early twenties and thus eligible.
On February 25, 2006, McGavin died of natural causes in a Los Angeles-area hospital, according to his son, Bogart McGavin [1].
[edit] Filmography
[edit] 1940-1970
- A Song to Remember (1945)
- Counter-Attack (1945)
- Kiss and Tell (1945)
- She Wouldn't Say Yes (1946)
- Fear (1946)
- Queen for a Day (1951)
- Summertime (1955)
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
- The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
- A Word to the Wives (1955)
- The Delicate Delinquent (1957)
- Beau James (1957)
- The Case Against Brooklyn (1958)
- Bullet for a Badman (1964)
- The Great Sioux Massacre (1965)
- African Gold (1966)
- Mission Mars (1968)
- Anatomy of a Crime (1969)
[edit] 1971-1990
- Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971)
- Mrs. Pollifax - Spy (1971)
- Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973) (also director and producer)
- 43: The Richard Petty Story (1974)
- B Must Die (1975)
- The Demon and the Mummy (1976)
- No Deposit, No Return (1976)
- Airport '77 (1977)
- Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978)
- Zero to Sixty (1978)
- Hangar 18 (1980)
- Firebird 2015 AD (1981)
- A Christmas Story (1983)
- The Natural (1984)
- Turk 182! (1985)
- Flag (1986)
- Raw Deal (1986)
- From the Hip (1987)
- Dead Heat (1988)
- In the Name of Blood (1990)
[edit] 1991-1999
- Captain America (1991)
- Blood and Concrete (1991)
- Happy Hell Night (1992)
- Billy Madison (1995)
- Still Waters Burn (1996)
- Small Time (1996)
- Pros and Cons (1999)
[edit] Television work
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