Sam Melville (actor)
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2022}}
{{Short description|American actor (1936–1989)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sam Melville
| image = Sam Melville The Rookies 1973 (cropped).JPG
| caption = Melville in 1973
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1936|8|20}}
| birth_place = Fillmore, Utah, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1989|3|9|1936|8|20}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| othername =
| occupation = Actor
| yearsactive = 1966–1989
| spouse =
| website =
| awards =
}}
Samuel Gardner Melville (August 20, 1936 – March 9, 1989) was an American film and television actor. He appeared as a guest star on many television programs of the 1960s and 1970s.
Career
He portrayed Officer Mike Danko in four seasons of Aaron Spelling's ABC series The Rookies, and The Bear in the 1978 surfing movie Big Wednesday, with Celia Kaye as his unnamed "bride".
Melville also had small parts in Hour of the Gun (1967) playing the role of Morgan Earp, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) starring Steve McQueen, as Lieutenant James Crandall / Schmidt on Hogan's Heroes (1966), and the television disaster film Terror in the Sky (1971) as the co-pilot. On Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O, both on CBS, he played villains as a guest-star. However, on the episode "A Mule ... Like the Army's Mule" of the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, Melville portrayed United States Army Lt. Jason Beal, who befriended Sandy King, played by Luke Halpin, the youngest member of the Curly Bill Brocius outlaw gang.{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959693/|title=Death Valley Days: "A Mule ... Like the Army's Mule", October 5, 1968| website=IMDb| accessdate=October 26, 2012}} In 1967, he guest starred in an episode of the CBS western, Dundee and the Culhane.
File:The Rookies cast 1975.JPG. Clockwise from the top: Georg Stanford Brown (Terry Webster), Kate Jackson (Jill Danko), Gerald S. O'Loughlin (Eddie Ryker), Bruce Fairbairn (Chris Owens) and Sam Melville (Mike Danko) in 1975]]
In 1970, Melville was cast as Indian agent John Clum in the Death Valley Days episode, "Clum's Constabulary", hosted by Dale Robertson. In the story line, Clum recruits an elite team of Apaches to aid the U.S. Cavalry in the Southwest but faces opposition within the white community. Tris Coffin was cast as Captain Loren Phillips and John Considine as Lago.{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556579/?ref_=ttep_ep23| title=Death Valley Days: Clum's Constabulary| website=IMDb| accessdate=September 17, 2018}}
Melville again portrayed a villain on the 1980s CBS drama Scarecrow and Mrs. King, which starred Kate Jackson as Mrs. King, and he later portrayed Mrs. King's ex-husband and father of her children on that series. He also played opposite Kate Jackson as her husband in the 1970s series The Rookies. He guest starred as a jewel thief, alongside Janie Fricke, in a seventh season episode of CBS's The Dukes of Hazzard titled "Happy Birthday, General Lee".
Melville was born in Fillmore, Utah, and died from heart failure in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife, Annie.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-11-mn-689-story.html| title=Sam Melville, 52; Actor Co-Starred in 'Rookies'| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=March 11, 1989| access-date=September 30, 2013}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable"
! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film |
| style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes |
|---|
| 1966
| A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine | Lowell Carter | Credited as Neville Coward |
| 1967
| Morgan Earp | |
| 1968
| Dave | |
| 1972
| Bigfoot: Man or Beast? | Himself | Documentary |
| 1976
| In Search of Bigfoot | Himself | Documentary |
| rowspan=2|1978
| Bear | |
| Hooper
| {{NA}} | Stuntman |
| 1988
| Twice Dead | Harry Cates | |
| rowspan=2|1989
| George Breenberg | |
| Deadly Weapon
| Sheriff Bartlett | |
| 1990
| The Assassin | Senator Berkeley | Final film role |
| class="wikitable"
! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Television |
| style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role ! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes |
|---|
| rowspan=4|1966
| Roddy Waxman | Season 1 episode 6: "Rich Little Rich Kid" |
| Shane
| Len / Shane's Companion | 2 episodes |
| T.H.E. Cat
| Chris | Episode 11: "Curtains for Miss Winslow" |
| Hogan's Heroes
| Lieutenant James Crandall / Schmidt | Season 2 episode 15: "Information Please" |
| rowspan=5|1967
| Deputy Lee Runnels | Season 4 episode 15: "Run the Man Down" |
| The Big Valley
| Jack | Season 2 episode 17: "Image of Yesterday" |
| The Guns of Will Sonnett
| Kirk | Season 1 episode 6: "Message at Noon" |
| Iron Horse
| Lloyd Barrington | Season 2 episode 7: "Leopards Try, But Leopards Can't" |
| Dundee and the Culhane
| Dave Howard | |
| 1967–1971
| Gunsmoke | Various characters | 10 episodes |
| 1968–1970
| John Clum / Lt. Jason Beal / David Meriweather | 3 episodes |
| 1968–1971
| Hawkins / Gary Oliver / Jerry Parks | 3 episodes |
| 1969
| Lew | Season 1 episode 13: "The Log Jam" |
| rowspan=3|1970
| Bonanza | Coulter | Season 11 episode 20: "The Law and Billy Burgess" |
| The Young Lawyers
| Gabe Thomas | Episode 6: "We May Be Better Strangers" |
| The Name of the Game
| Gary Johnson | Season 3 episode 9: "All the Old Familiar Faces" |
| rowspan=3|1971
| Mannix | John Ogilvy | Season 5 episode 1: "Dark So Early, Dark So Long" |
| Terror in the Sky
| Stewart | TV movie |
| The Man and the City
| | Episode 14: Jennifer |
| 1972
| Killer by Night | Book Store Owner | TV movie |
| 1972–1976
| Officer Mike Danko | Main role – 93 episodes |
| 1974
| Fools, Females and Fun | Stephen Cole | TV movie |
| 1975
| Himself | Panelist – September 22 |
| 1976
| Himself | 5 episodes |
| rowspan=3|1980
| Roughnecks | O'Dell Hartman | TV movie |
| When the Whistle Blows
| Charlie Sullivan | Episode 10: "Run for the Roses" |
| Fantasy Island
| Tony Chilton | Season 4 episode 2: "Flying Aces/The Mermaid Returns" |
| 1980–1984
| Russell "Snake" Harmon / Tommy Dunkirk / Rick | 3 episodes |
| rowspan=2|1982
| Dennis | Episode 10: "Internal Affairs" |
| Code Red
| | Episode 13: "Burnout" |
| 1983–1986
| Mitoski / Hank Carmichael | 2 episodes |
| 1984
| Airwolf | Mace Taggart | Season 2 episode 8: "HX-1" |
| 1984–1985
| Shaw / Rocco | 2 episodes |
| |1985–1987
| Joe King / Glen Tucker | 5 episodes |
| rowspan=3|1986
| Dallas | Dr. David Kenfield | 3 episodes |
| The Colbys
| Michael Grogan | Season 1 episode 14: "The Trial" |
| Starman
| Joe Floss | Episode 3: "Fatal Flaw" |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0578505|Sam Melville}}
- {{Find a Grave|8973}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melville, Sam}}
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:Male actors from Utah
Category:People from Fillmore, Utah
Category:Male actors from Los Angeles
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Category:20th-century American male actors
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