Martin Milner
Martin Sam Milner was an American film, stage, radio, and television actor. Milner is known for his performances on two television series: Route 66, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and Adam-12, which aired on NBC from 1968 to 1975.
Early years
Milner was born on December 28, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Mildred, a Paramount Theater circuit dancer, and Sam Gordon Milner, who worked as a construction hand and later a film distributor. His father was a Polish Jewish immigrant. The family left Detroit when he 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.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 in the role of John Day, the second oldest son of Clarence Day, played by William Powell, and Vinnie Day, portrayed by Irene Dunne. Less than two weeks after that film was completed in August 1946, Milner contracted poliomyelitis. He recovered within a year and had bit parts in two more films, then graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1949. He immediately landed a minor role in the film Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne.
Career
Milner attended the University of Southern California where he studied theater. He dropped out after a year in the fall of 1950 to concentrate on acting. He made his first television appearance in 1950 as a guest star in episode 28 titled "Pay Dirt" on 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 and Mister Roberts, with William Powell and Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. On the set of Halls of Montezuma, he met and befriended actor Jack Webb, and he began intermittent work on Webb's radio series Dragnet.
In 1952, Milner began a two-year stint in the United States Army. He was assigned to Special Services at Fort Ord on California's Monterey Bay Peninsula, where he directed training films. He also emceed and performed in skits in a touring unit show to entertain the soldiers. Milner was encouraged by fellow soldier David Janssen to pursue an acting career when his time in the Army ended. He also served at Fort Ord at the same time as future actors Clint Eastwood and Richard Long. While in the Army, Milner continued working for Jack Webb, playing Officer Bill Lockwood 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, The Twilight Zone, and Rawhide.
Milner was under contract at Hecht-Lancaster, Burt Lancaster’s production company. He also acted in films, including The Long Gray Line, Mister Roberts, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Sweet Smell of Success, Marjorie Morningstar, Compulsion and 13 Ghosts. He was one of the stars of Valley of the Dolls, based on the best-seller by Jacqueline Susann.
''Route 66''
In 1960, Milner won the role of 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, Milner's character Tod travels across the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette, taking a variety of odd jobs along the way and getting involved in other people's problems. Tod's traveling partner on his escapades is his friend Buz Murdock, a former employee of his father. During the series' third season, Glenn Corbett replaced Maharis.Route 66 was a different sort of television program, as the travels of Tod and his traveling partners were shot on location. Thus, Milner spent nearly four years traveling the U.S. 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.
''Adam-12''
Milner and Webb had a long-established working relationship by the time it came to cast Adam-12. Milner appeared in numerous episodes of both the radio and television versions of the series Dragnet. Milner also worked with Webb in the films Halls of Montezuma and Pete Kelly's Blues.In 1968, Milner returned to television as seven-year LAPD veteran uniform patrol Officer Peter Joseph "Pete" Malloy in Adam-12, the Webb-produced police drama. Kent McCord played his partner, rookie Officer James A. "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.
Milner was Webb's choice for Pete Malloy in part because his relative youth and prior acting credits and because of his on-camera driving experience from his days on Route 66. He guest-starred in three episodes of Emergency! between 1972 and 1976, during and after Adam-12s run on NBC, the best known and first of which was the pilot episode The Wedsworth-Townsend Act.
Later career
After Adam-12, Milner starred as Karl Robinson in a television series version of The Swiss Family Robinson, produced by Irwin Allen. Most of his following work was as a television guest star, including action-adventure series MacGyver, Airwolf, Murder, She Wrote and . In 1983, Milner hosted a morning radio wake-up show on AM 600 KOGO in San Diego.Milner also portrayed the victim in the premiere episode of Columbo titled "Murder by the Book". In 1990, Milner teamed again with Kent McCord in the cable TV-movie Nashville Beat, originally shown on the now-defunct The Nashville Network. The story, partly written by McCord, had McCord as an LAPD detective who teams with his old partner, Milner, in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he 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. In 1998, Milner decided to pay an homage of sorts to Route 66, with the documentary film Route 66: Return to the Road with Martin Milner, which featured Milner in a 1961 Corvette on a journey from Chicago to Santa Monica on the highway.
Personal life and death
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. They had four children.In February 2003, Milner's eldest daughter Amy, who appeared in an episode of Adam 12, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She died in December 2004.
On September 6, 2015, Milner died of heart failure at his home in Carlsbad, California at age 83. Milner's remains were cremated by Eternal Hills Memorial Park's mortuary in Oceanside, California. His memorial service was held by law enforcement and community members six days later.