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McGavin was married twice in long-term marriages:
McGavin was married twice in long-term marriages:
* Melanie York ([[20 March]] [[1944]] to [[1969]]), producing four children (Bogart, York, Megan, and Bridget McGavin), ending in divorce;
* [[Melanie York]] ([[20 March]] [[1944]] to [[1969]]), producing four children (Bogart, York, Megan, and Bridget McGavin), ending in divorce;
* Kathie Browne ([[31 December]] [[1969]]–[[8 April]] [[2003]]), ending in her death.
* [[Kathie Browne]] ([[31 December]] [[1969]]–[[8 April]] [[2003]]), ending in her death.


It is unclear whether McGavin was in military or naval service in [[World War II]], although he was in his early twenties then.
It is unclear whether McGavin was in military or naval service in [[World War II]], although he was in his early twenties then.

Revision as of 23:41, 26 February 2006

File:DarrenMcGavinTheNightStalker.jpg
McGavin as Kolchak in The Night Stalker (1972)

William Leland Richardson (May 7, 1922–February 25, 2006), who adopted the name of Darren McGavin, was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and the movie A Christmas Story. He also appeared as the detective in the TV series Mike Hammer.

Childhood

Richardson was born in either Spokane, Washington, or San Joaquin, California. Many details of his early life are unknown, though apparently he was a several-time runaway, and his parents disappeared one time while he was gone.

Career

Practically 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 College 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 and began working in live TV drama and on Broadway.

McGavin returned to Hollywood and became a busy actor in a wide variety of TV and movie roles. 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 such diverse projects as Mike Hammer and Riverboat.

McGavin won a CableACE Award (for the 1991 TV movie Clara) and received an Emmy Award nomination as an Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series on the comedy series Murphy Brown, where he played Murphy Brown's father.

McGavin's two best-known roles were as "The Old Man," the narrator's father, in the classic Christmas movie A Christmas Story (1983), and as reporter Carl Kolchak in the supernatural-themed TV movies The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973); and also in the subsequent television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974).

Kolchak was the inspiration for the successful 1993 series The X-Files and because of 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' brother, also called Arthur.

McGavin was also known for his role as Mike Hammer in the TV series Mike Hammer (1957) and is remembered 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.

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 Chris Carter's 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.

McGavin was married twice in long-term marriages:

It is unclear whether McGavin was in military or naval service in World War II, although he was in his early twenties then.

Death

McGavin died of natural causes at age 83 in a Los Angeles-area hospital, according to his son, Bogart McGavin.[1] Darrin McGavin was survived by all four of his children.

Filmography

Television work

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