Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin (born William Lyle Richardson; May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006) 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 son overhears. He also appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the TV series Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.
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 Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Riverboat.
When the comedy team Martin and Lewis broke up as a result of Dean Martin’s refusal to play a cop in a movie, McGavin played the role originally earmarked for Martin in The Delicate Delinquent, Jerry Lewis’s first solo film. McGavin 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 fill-in 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 was married twice in long-term marriages. The first, to Melanie York was on March 20, 1944 and ended in 1969. The marriage produced four children (Bogart, York, Megan, and Bridget McGavin). The second was to Kathie Browne on December 31, 1969, ending at her death on April 8, 2003.
On February 25, 2006, McGavin died of natural causes in a Los Angeles-area hospital.
He was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Darren McGavin Naked Photos
