Darren McGavin

Darren McGavin was an American actor, whose Disney roles included himself in the 1959 documentary Disneyland '59, Duke in No Deposit, No Return, Mayor Ragsdale in Hot Lead and Cold Feet, Dominic Dracon and G.F. Benton in the Gargoyles episode "The Silver Falcon", Barney B. Duncan in the two-part Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episode "Boomerang, Dog of Many Talents", John Jay Forrest in the three-part Wonderful World of Disney episode "The High Flying Spy", and Timothy Donovan in the two-part Wonderful World of Disney episode "Donovan's Kid". He also played Mr. Hobbs in the film Perfect Harmony and starred as Nick Small in the short-lived series Small and Frye.

McGavin was born in Spokane, Washington and ran away from home where he lived with a Native American family along the Nisqually River. His father was soon notified that he had fled, and McGavin temporarily dodged police and welfare workers before his father enrolled him in a Catholic boarding school. While attending high school in California, McGavin developed aspirations to be an architect, and after graduating enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California to study architecture. He later studied theatre at the HB Studio in New York City.

He began appearing on Broadway in 1954, in productions of My 3 Angels and The Rainmaker before gaining film prominence with The Man with the Golden Arm, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, The Delicate Delinquent, The Great Sioux Massacre, Airport '77, 43: The Richard Petty Story, Happy Mother's Day, Love George, Billy Madison, and A Christmas Story as Old Man Parker.

Primarily working in television, McGavin appeared in shows, like Casey, Crime Photographer, Omnibus, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alcoa Hour, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Riverboat, Death Valley Days, Rawhide, The Defenders, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, The Outsider, The Name of the Game, The Evil Touch, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Murphy Brown, The X-Files, and the title character of the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Roles[]