Martin Milner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
| Martin Milner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Martin Sam Milner December 28, 1931 Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Years active | 1947-1997 |
| Spouse(s) | Judith Bess Jones (1957–present) |
Martin Sam Milner (born December 28, 1931) is an American actor best known for his performances in two popular television series, Adam-12 and Route 66.
He has also appeared in other television series, numerous films, radio dramas, a Broadway play, and even a radio fishing show.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
The son of a film distributor, Sam Gordon Milner, and a dancer with the Paramount Theater circuit, Jerry Martin, Milner was born in Detroit, Michigan. The family moved from Detroit to Seattle when Martin was a baby, and then to Los Angeles. Milner had an agent at the age of fourteen, and a film career shortly thereafter, first appearing on screen when he was fifteen years old.
This was temporarily derailed by a year-long bout with polio. After fully recovering from this, Milner juggled school and career. He graduated from North Hollywood High School, took classes at San Fernando Valley State College, and then attended the University of Southern California for a year, before dropping out to concentrate on acting. He is a brother in the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
His debut was in the 1947 film Life With Father, playing John Day, the second eldest son, opposite William Powell as the father. In addition to films, Milner began appearing on television in 1950, most notably as a guest star on The Lone Ranger and as one of the sons in the early television series The Stu Erwin Show.
During this period, he frequently played young military characters. Life mirrored art, and Milner was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1952. He spent most of his service at Fort Ord, directing training films and serving as master of ceremonies for a touring show of military personnel - and often acted for friend Jack Webb (playing Officer Bill Lockwood, who was briefly Sgt. Friday's partner, and various other characters on the radio version of Dragnet) on his days off. During his Army days Milner became friends with fellow soldiers David Janssen and Clint Eastwood.
After his military service, Milner met singer and actress Judith Bess "Judy" Jones at a Hollywood dinner party, and asked for her phone number. The couple were married in 1957. They have four children together, Amy (now deceased), Molly, Stuart, and Andrew.
After a stint in the U.S. Army, Milner continued his film career with supporting roles in notable productions, most notably in Marjorie Morningstar (1958), Compulsion (1959), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), as James Earp, and 13 Ghosts (1960).
[edit] Route 66
Although his later series, Adam-12, is probably better remembered in the US today, Milner is also best-known around the world for his starring role as Tod Stiles in the iconic CBS television series, Route 66 (1960 to 1964), created by Stirling Silliphant. Like Adam-12, Route 66 was essentially about two regular guys in a car.
After the sudden death of his father left him unexpectedly penniless, Tod wandered the United States with his friend Buz Murdock (George Maharis) in Tod's Chevrolet Corvette, taking a variety of jobs and getting involved in other people's problems. Maharis was eventually replaced by Glenn Corbett as Linc Case, but Milner starred throughout the show's run. Since the show was filmed almost entirely on location, Milner spent nearly four years traveling the country in reality, sometimes bringing his wife and children along.
[edit] Adam-12
For many years before Adam-12, Milner appeared in numerous episodes of both the radio and television versions of the seminal Jack Webb series Dragnet. (Milner also worked with Webb in the 1950 film Halls of Montezuma and the 1955 film Pete Kelly's Blues.) This ongoing working relationship eventually led to the role for which Milner is best known.
In 1968, Milner returned to television as seasoned LAPD uniform patrol Officer Peter Joseph "Pete" Malloy in the Jack Webb-produced police drama, Adam-12. His co-star Kent McCord played his partner, rookie Officer Jim Reed. The popular NBC series ran from 1968 to 1975. Like Webb's Dragnet, it was based on real Los Angeles police procedures and cases, and was hailed for its realistic, positive portrayal of ordinary police officers.
Milner was Webb's hands-down choice for "cop behind the wheel" Pete Malloy, in part because his relative youth and prior acting credits, and also (in Milner's words) because of his on-camera driving experience from his days on Route 66.
[edit] Other career highlights
In 1965, Milner made a guest appearance as Kahuna, a surfer, in the short-lived ABC television series, Gidget starring Sally Field.
Just before Adam-12, Milner starred on Broadway in The Ninety Day Mistress. This might have interfered with the start of Milner's involvement in the television production, but fortunately the play lasted considerably less than 90 days, opening and closing in November 1967.
After Adam-12 Martin Milner starred as Karl Robinson in a television series version of The Swiss Family Robinson (1975 – 1976), produced by Irwin Allen. Most of his other work since then has been as a television guest star, most notably in MacGyver (as James MacGyver, MacGyver's father), Life Goes On and RoboCop: The Series.
Milner also has the distinction of having portrayed the victim in the very first murder that Columbo had to solve when the series premiered on the NBC Mystery Movie series. Martin Milner re-teamed with Kent McCord, his co-star from "Adam-12", in the cable TV-movie, Nashville Beat (1990), originally shown on the now-defunct The Nashville Network. The story partly written by Kent McCord had Kent McCord as an LAPD detective who teams up with his old partner, Martin Milner, in Nashville, Tennessee. Martin Milner also played Harris Cassidy in five episodes of the 1992 television series Life Goes On.
[edit] Personal life
During the filming of Route 66, Milner became concerned about his lack of time spent at home with his young family. He outfitted a Chevrolet Greenbriar wagon for himself, his wife Judy, his young children (Andrew was not yet born), the family housekeeper and the family dog, so that he could have his home life on the road, and so that his children would have the presence of their father. He was relatively unconcerned about the effect of this nomadic life on Molly and Stuart, who were too young to notice much difference. As for his eldest, Amy, Milner felt that the travel would enhance her ability to make friends wherever she went.[1]
By contrast, Adam-12 years later involved no travel at all. Milner once joked that the show "is shot on various locations around North Hollywood." Two of his children, Andrew and Amy, each appeared in an episode of the series.
"Marty" Milner has a passion for fishing, and has traveled all over the world pursuing his hobby. From 1993 to 2004 he was co-host of "Let's Talk Hook-up", a radio talk show about fishing based in the San Diego area. His health eventually led him to retire from the radio show, but not from the fishing. He still resides in Southern California with his family.
| “ | I have no complaints on any level. I'm pretty happy about the way everything has turned out. | ” |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Martin Milner at the Internet Broadway Database
- Martin Milner at the Internet Movie Database
- The Martin Milner Archives - fan site, with a biography, photos and text of old articles
- Martin Milner Fansite @ Hollywood.com - includes detailed biography & film/tv credits
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Milner, Martin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Milner, Martin Sam |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 28, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
