Denny Miller

A native of Bloomington, Indiana,{{cite news |last1=Leonard |first1=Mike |title=From jungle to ocean: the life and times of 'what's his name' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78578235/denny-miller/ |access-date=May 30, 2021 |work=The Reporter-Times |date=July 4, 2004 |location=Indiana, Martinsville |page=12|via = Newspapers.com}} the 6'4' Miller was a basketball player for the UCLA Bruins at UCLA, where his father was a physical education instructor.{{Citation needed |date=May 2024}}

In his senior year, while he was working as a furniture mover to pay for school, Miller was discovered on Sunset Boulevard by a Hollywood agent who signed him with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His screen test was directed by George Cukor.{{cite web |first=Marcel |last=Damen |url=http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-1978-interviews/denny-miller-galactica.tv-interview.html |title=Denny Miller interview |publisher=GALACTICA.TV |date=February 21, 2007 |access-date=October 2, 2014 |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729034315/http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-1978-interviews/denny-miller-galactica.tv-interview.html |url-status=dead }}

Miller became the first blond Tarzan in Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959), a cheapie/quickie which lifted most of its footage from earlier Johnny Weissmuller movies. Miller had been recommended by someone else considered for the role, William Smith, later a star of the NBC Laredo western series. MGM had Miller under contract for twenty months; in that time, he worked only eight weeks as Tarzan.

Miller did guest spots on a number of television series, such as Northwest Passage and Overland Trail. In 1960, the 26-year-old Miller appeared as Wilkie, the son of a powerful rancher, in the "License to Kill" episode of Laramie. He also appeared on Have Gun – Will Travel and an episode of The Rifleman as a dimwitted gunfighter named Reuben Miles.

File:Wagon Train cast 1962.jpg

From 1961 to 1964, Miller was a regular on Wagon Train in the role of the scout, Duke Shannon. After the cancellation of Wagon Train in 1965, Miller starred as Mike McCluskey on the NBC sitcom Mona McCluskey (1965-1966).

He guest starred on such series as Gunsmoke; The Fugitive; The High Chaparral; Gilligan's Island; I Dream of Jeannie; The Brady Bunch; Alice; Death Valley Days; Hawaii Five-O; Emergency!; The Six Million Dollar Man; Quincy, M.E.; The New Adventures of Wonder Woman; Battlestar Galactica; Quark; Charlie's Angels; Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; The Incredible Hulk; M*A*S*H; Magnum, P.I.; [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0565344/characters/nm0588225?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t13 Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman];{{unreliable source |date=December 2024}} V and Bordertown (1989-90).

Miller appeared in over 200 television series and, for 14

years, he played the Gorton's Fisherman in TV commercials.

His film career included roles in Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1961), and the part of "Wyoming" Bill Kelso in The Party (1968), which he remembered as the part he most enjoyed. His other film credits included Making It (1971), Doomsday Machine (1972), Buck and the Preacher (1972), The Gravy Train (1974), The Island at the Top of the World (1974), The Norseman (1978), Caboblanco (1980) and Circle of Power (1981).

Miller wrote an autobiography titled Didn't You Used to Be...What's His Name? on January 28, 2004 and a book about obesity in the United States called Toxic Waist? ... Get to Know Sweat!.{{cite book |title=Toxic Waist? ... Get to Know Sweat! |year=2006 |publisher=To Health With You Publishers | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHU5AAAACAAJ&q=Miller+toxic+waist |isbn=978-0-9753-9171-6}}

Miller was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in January 2014. He died in Las Vegas on September 9, 2014, at the age of 80.{{cite news |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/denny-miller-dead-tarzan-wagon-732535 |title=Denny Miller, Star of 'Tarzan' and 'Wagon Train,' Dies at 80 |first=Mike |last=Barnes |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=2014-09-12 |access-date=2014-09-12}}

• Mike Henry
• Buster Crabbe
• Lex Barker
• Ron Ely

{{Portal|Biography|Indiana|Los Angeles|California|United States|Television|Film}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0588225|name=Denny Miller}}
• [http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/dennymiller.html Entry for Denny Miller] at [http://www.briansdriveintheater.com Brian's Drive-In Theater]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140327143457/http://www.denny-miller.com/ Official Denny Miller Website]
• [http://www.erbzine.com/denny/ Erbzine]

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{{succession box | before = Gordon Scott | title = Actors to portray Tarzan | years = 1959 | after = Jock Mahoney}}

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Category:1934 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:People from Bloomington, Indiana

Category:Male actors from Indiana

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Male actors from Los Angeles

Category:Actors from the Las Vegas Valley

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:UCLA Bruins men's basketball players

Category:Writers from Indiana

Category:Neurological disease deaths in Nevada

Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United States

Category:American autobiographers

Category:American non-fiction writers

Category:Western (genre) television actors

Category:American men's basketball players

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century American sportsmen