Martin Milner

Milner was born on December 28, 1931,{{sfn|Willis|Monush|2006|page=368}} in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Mildred (née Martin), a Paramount Theater circuit dancer, and Sam Gordon Milner, who worked as a construction hand and later a film distributor.{{sfn|Willis|Monush|1998|page=283}} Sam was a Polish-Jewish immigrant.{{cite news|last=Tugend|first=Tom|url=http://jewishjournal.com/culture/lifestyle/obituaries/177676/|title=Remembering Marty Milner|work=The Jewish Journal|publisher=TRIBE Media Corp.|location=Los Angeles|date=September 16, 2015|access-date=January 16, 2016}} The family left Detroit when Milner was a young child, moved frequently, and settled in Seattle, Washington by the time he was nine. There he became involved in acting, first in school, and then in a children's theater group at the Cornish Playhouse.{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/news/martin-milner-dies-adam-12-route-66/|title=Adam-12, Route 66 Star Martin Milner Dies at 83|first=Adam|last=Bryant|work=TV Guide|publisher=NTVB Media {{small|(magazine)}} CBS Interactive (CBS Corporation) {{small|(digital assets)}}|location=New York City|date=September 7, 2015|access-date=June 8, 2017}}

When Milner was a teenager, he moved with his family to Los Angeles where his parents hired an acting coach and later an agent for him. Milner had his first screen test and began his film career with his debut in the Warner Bros. film Life with Father (1947). Less than two weeks after that film was completed in August 1946, Milner contracted polio. He recovered within a year and had bit parts in two more films, then was graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1949. He immediately landed a minor role in the film Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne.{{cite news|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/martin-milner-dead-adam-12-820849|title=Martin Milner, Star of 'Adam-12' and 'Route 66,' Dies at 83|first1=Mike|last1=Barnes|first2=Duane|last2=Byrge|work=The Hollywood Reporter|publisher=Eldridge Industries|location=Los Angeles|date=September 7, 2015|access-date=June 8, 2017}}

Milner attended the University of Southern California where he studied theater.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AbtaAAAAIBAJ&pg=3623,3264688|title=The Players of Adam-12|date=October 18, 1972|work=The Daily Courier|publisher=Western Newspapers|location=Prescott, Arizona|access-date=February 18, 2013}} He dropped out after a year in the fall of 1950 to concentrate on acting.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ArsgAAAAIBAJ&pg=3518,1349911|title=Milner Grew Up In the Business|date=November 10, 1960|work=Lewiston Evening Journal|publisher=Sun Media Group|location=Lewiston, Maine|pages=7–A|access-date=February 18, 2013}} He made his first television appearance in 1950 as a guest star in episode 28, "Pay Dirt", of The Lone Ranger. The same year, he began a recurring role as Drexel Potter on the sitcom The Stu Erwin Show.

He had several more roles, both minor and major, in war films in the 1950s, including another John Wayne picture titled Operation Pacific (1951) and Mister Roberts (1955), with William Powell and Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. On the set of Halls of Montezuma (1950), he met and befriended actor Jack Webb, and he began intermittent work on Webb's radio series Dragnet.{{cite news|first=Carmel|last= Dagan|url= https://variety.com/2015/film/news/martin-milner-dead-adam-12-route-66-1201587461/|title= Martin Milner, Star of 'Adam-12,' 'Route 66,' Dies at 83|work=Variety|publisher=Penske Media Corporation|location=Los Angeles|date=September 7, 2015|access-date=September 8, 2015}}

In 1952, Milner began a two-year stint in the United States Army. Assigned to Special Services at Fort Ord on California's Monterey Bay Peninsula, he directed training films{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-martin-milner-20150908-story.html|title=Martin Milner dies at 83; 'Adam-12' and 'Route 66' star|first=Dennis|last=McLellan|work=Los Angeles Times|location=Los Angeles|date=September 7, 2015|access-date=June 8, 2017}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XaZMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6741,85691|title=Martin. Milner also starred in Gidget with Sally Field and Don Porter, as the 'Big Kahuna' in an early episode by the same name. Milner|date=September 20, 1970|work=The Daily Courier|publisher=Western Newspapers|location=Prescott, Arizona|access-date=February 18, 2013}} and was both an M.C. and performer in skits for a touring unit created to entertain soldiers. Milner was encouraged by fellow soldier and future actor David Janssen to pursue an acting career when his time in the Army ended. Janssen and Milner served at Fort Ord with fellow future actors Clint Eastwood and Richard Long.{{cite web|url=http://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/clint-eastwood-used-gi-bill.html|title=Clint Eastwood Used the GI Bill|author=|work=Military.com|publisher=Monster Worldwide|location=United States|access-date=June 8, 2017}} While in the Army, Milner continued working for Jack Webb, playing Officer Bill Lockwood (briefly the partner of Sgt. Friday) and other characters on the Dragnet radio series on weekends. He also appeared on six episodes of Webb's Dragnet television series between 1952 and 1955.

After his military service ended, Milner had a recurring role on The Life of Riley from 1953 to 1958. He also made guest appearances on numerous television shows, including episodes of The Bigelow Theatre, The Great Gildersleeve, TV Reader's Digest, Science Fiction Theatre, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, NBC Matinee Theater, The West Point Story, 12 O'Clock High (Season 3, Episode 13, "Six Feet Under"), The Twilight Zone (episode: "Mirror Image"), Wagon Train and Rawhide.

Milner was under contract at Hecht-Lancaster, Burt Lancaster's production company. He also acted in films, including The Long Gray Line (1955), Mister Roberts (1955), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Marjorie Morningstar (1958), where he was able to draw on his Jewish roots playing the role of Wally Wronkin, Compulsion (1959), and 13 Ghosts (1960). He later costarred in Valley of the Dolls (1967), based on the best-selling novel by Jacqueline Susann.

File:Martin Milner George Maharis Route 66 sign.jpg in Route 66 publicity still, 1962]]

In 1960, Milner was cast as Tod Stiles on the television series Route 66, which ran from 1960 to 1964. Created by Stirling Silliphant, Route 66 is about two regular but distinctly different young men in a car touring the United States. After the sudden death of his father left him penniless, save for a new Chevrolet Corvette, Milner's character travels across the United States in the Corvette, taking a variety of odd jobs along the way and getting involved in other people's problems. His traveling partner on his escapades is his friend Buz Murdock (played by George Maharis), a former employee of his father's. During the series' third season, Glenn Corbett replaced Maharis, who claimed he was ill with hepatitis but later verified he wanted to break away to pursue other career opportunities. The show never regained its audience appeal with Corbett and was cancelled after a year.

Route 66 was shot on location, so Milner spent nearly four years traveling the US for the series, sometimes taking his wife and children along.

Milner appeared on Broadway once in the short-lived comedy The Ninety Day Mistress in 1967.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/arts/television/martin-milner-dies-at-83-actor-made-his-name-on-route-66.html|title=Martin Milner, Clean-Cut Star of 'Route 66' and 'Adam-12,' Dies at 83|first=Anita|last=Gates|work=The New York Times|date=September 7, 2015|access-date=June 8, 2017}}

By the mid-1960s, Milner and Jack Webb had a long-established working relationship. Milner had appeared in numerous episodes of both the radio and television versions of the series Dragnet, and had worked with Webb in the films Halls of Montezuma (1950) and Pete Kelly's Blues (1955).{{cite book |author1=Daniel Moyer |author2=Eugene Alvarez |title=Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb |date=2001 |publisher=Seven Locks Press |isbn=9780929765297 |page=110}}

In 1968, Milner returned to television as seven-year LAPD veteran uniform patrol Officer Pete Malloy in Adam-12, a Webb-produced police drama. Kent McCord played his partner, rookie Officer Jim Reed. The series ran from 1968 to 1975. Like Webb's Dragnet, it was based on real Los Angeles Police Department procedures and cases.{{cite book |author1=Ronald Wayne Rodman |title=Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195340242 |page=242}}

Milner was Webb's choice for Malloy in part because of his relative youth and prior acting credits and because of his on-camera driving experience from his days on Route 66.{{cite book|title=Prime-time hits: television's most popular network program| first=Susan|last=Sackett|year=1993|publisher=Billboard Books|isbn=978-0823083923}} He guest-starred in three episodes of Emergency! between 1972 and 1976, during and after Adam-12{{'}}s run on NBC, the first of which, and the best known, was the pilot movie The Wedsworth-Townsend Act.{{cite book |author1=Richard Yokley |author2=Rozane Sutherland |title=Emergency! Behind the Scene |date=May 2007 |publisher=Jones and Bartlett Publishers |isbn=9780763748968 |page=46}}

File:Martin Milner 1975.JPG

In 1971, Milner portrayed the murder victim in the premiere episode of Columbo titled "Murder by the Book". After Adam-12, Milner starred as Karl Robinson in a television series version of The Swiss Family Robinson (1975–1976), produced by Irwin Allen. Most of his later work was as a guest star, including MacGyver (as the protagonist's father); Airwolf; Murder, She Wrote; and RoboCop: The Series. In 1983, Milner hosted a morning radio wake-up show on AM 600 KOGO in San Diego.{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=2015-09-07 |title=Martin Milner, Clean-Cut Star of ‘Route 66’ and ‘Adam-12,’ Dies at 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/arts/television/martin-milner-dies-at-83-actor-made-his-name-on-route-66.html |access-date=2025-01-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |last=jesswaid |date=2015-11-19 |title=Martin Milner |url=https://jesswaid.com/2015/11/19/martin-milner/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=Jess Waid |language=en}}

In 1990, Milner teamed again with Kent McCord in the cable TV-movie Nashville Beat (1990), on The Nashville Network. The story was co-written by McCord, who played an LAPD detective who works with his former partner, played by Milner, in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, Milner guest-starred on five episodes of ABC's Life Goes On.

After retiring from acting, Milner co-hosted a radio show about fishing called Let's Talk Hook-Up on San Diego-area sports station XETRA AM 690 (now XEWW).

In 1998, Milner took part in a documentary film, Route 66: Return to the Road with Martin Milner, in which he drove a 1961 Corvette from Chicago to Santa Monica.

In May 1956, Milner met singer and actress Judith Bess Jones at a Hollywood dinner party. They were married on February 23, 1957, in Waukegan, Illinois.{{cite news|title=Marriage Announcement|date=February 24, 1957|work=Chicago Tribune|publisher=Tonc, Inc.|location=Chicago|page=34}} They had four children together.{{cite news|title=Milner's Back!|last=Shain|first=Percy|date=June 23, 1968|work=The Boston Globe|publisher=Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC|location=Boston|pages=TV–2}}

In February 2003, Milner's eldest daughter Amy, who appeared in an episode of Adam 12, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.{{cite web|url=http://www.nctimes.com/article_be31aaba-c571-5467-aa07-9017b708f3d5.html|title=Actor Martin Milner seeks help for ill daughter in Encinitas|date=July 11, 2004|work=North County Times|publisher=The San Diego Union-Tribune|location=Escondido, California|access-date=December 29, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} She died in December 2004.{{cite news|url=http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/obituaries/obituaries/article_01d7f325-f20e-5134-8665-7230518f9bad.html|title=Obituaries - 12/23/04|date=December 23, 2004|work=North County Times|publisher=The San Diego Union-Tribune|location=Escondido, California|access-date=December 29, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101053057/http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/obituaries/obituaries/article_01d7f325-f20e-5134-8665-7230518f9bad.html|archive-date=January 1, 2013|url-status=dead}}

On September 6, 2015, Milner died of heart failure at his home in Carlsbad, California, at age 83.{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/martin-milner-route-66-adam-12-star-dies-33589296|title=Martin Milner, 'Route 66' and 'Adam-12' Star, Dies|work=ABC News|publisher=ABC|location=New York City|access-date=September 7, 2015}} His remains were cremated.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ | title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed| isbn=9781476625997| last1=Wilson| first1=Scott| date=19 August 2016| publisher=McFarland}}

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• {{cite book|last1=Willis|first1=John|last2=Monush|first2=Barry|title=Screen World: 2005 Film Annual|year=2006|volume =56|publisher=Applause Theatre and Cinema Books|location=Milwaukee|edition=Cloth|isbn=978-1557836670|page=368}}
• {{cite book|last1=Willis|first1=John|last2=Monush|first2=Barry|title=Screen World 1997|volume=48|year=1998|publisher=Applause Theatre and Cinema Books|location=Milwaukee|page=283|isbn=1557833206}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male radio actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Male actors from Detroit

Category:Male actors from Seattle

Category:United States Army personnel of the Korean War

Category:Military personnel from Detroit

Category:USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni

Category:North Hollywood High School alumni