Obituary: Martin Milner

According to TMZ, actor Martin Milner, known for both television and movie roles, but probably best known for his television roles, has died. He was 83.

A representative of his fan page confirmed the death.


For most younger people, Milner is remembered for his role in the police series Adam 12, but those of us in the baby boom era best remember his work in the classic television series, Route 66. It ran from 1960 to 1964. This show, with the exception of the last two episodes which were just godawful but for the final scene, was one of the best shows ever to air. The episodes often operated on a higher intellectual plane than almost all other series of the era, which is saying a lot because there were so many great series from that period. You had to pay attention or even watch the episodes multiple times to truly grasp it. It was really about man's search for meaning. It was one of the early road-type shows where people went across the country searching for whatever was missing in their lives.

Milner, with original co-star George Maharis and later with Glenn Corbett after Maharis left, uprooted his family to travel from place to place to act in this series, as this was the first, and I believe the ONLY, series ever to be filmed entirely on the road--no studio work. It was a truly great series, and Milner, who played a privileged kid with a spanking new Corvette (arguably the true star of the series), had a cynical, edgy demeanor that endeared him to millions.

Route 66 was canceled after the fourth season as the cost of all of the location shooting was not sustainable. Fortunately, the episodes are on DVD for people to enjoy.

I have written about it here and here.

Milner had equal success with Adam 12. He guested on television shows like the Twilight Zone, where he appeared in the unsettling "Mirror Image." He could also be seen in movies like that godawful Valley of the Dolls. In that film, Milner played the first husband of character Neely O'Hara, played by Patty Duke. Her performance was arguably the worst performance by an actress in motion picture history. Milner had a thankless role, but then again, everybody in that film did.

Here is a truly memorable scene with Milner with Sharon Tate and Patty Duke:



More about Milner from the Variety link:

“Route 66” ran on CBS from 1960-64, about a decade before “Adam-12” and resolutely not produced by Webb: Written and lensed across North America and inspired by the spirit of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” the series followed Milner’s Tod Stiles and George Maharis’ Buz Murdock as they traveled from town to town in a Corvette, exploring social issues and the changing cultural landscape.

As “Adam-12” ended in 1975, Milner transitioned smoothly to the Irwin Allen-produced series “Swiss Family Robinson,” in which he played the paterfamilias. When that series proved short lived, Milner went on to appear in a variety of TV movies; there was also a guest spot on “Police Story.”

He retired from acting in 1997.

Milner was married since 1957 to Judy Jones, and they had four children, three of whom along with Judy survive him.

He will be missed.

Sorry I Am Not

posting much, but I am sitting here watching a DVD of the classic 1960s series, Route 66. Beyond the fact it was one of the best shows in television history, it is fun to watch where the show was filmed for each episode. Of course it was filmed almost entirely on location.

I watched an episode where Tod (Martin Milner), Buz (George Maharis), and the real star of the show, the Corvette, went to Squaw Valley, California. Squaw Valley, of course, was the location of the 1960 Winter Olympics, and it was mentioned on the show. At the beginning of the episode ("Effigy in Snow"), which was about a nutball who had killed a woman skier, Milner and Maharis were parked alongside the road overlooking a lake. I knew it wasn't Tahoe, but never mind. It was Donner Lake, as the two noted, and they also mentioned the tragic Donner Party incident including cannibalization and all. Since the episode was filmed in 1961, before Interstate 80 was built or completed, the location threw me for a bit.

Another episode, "Like a Motherless Child," was filmed in around Carson City and Reno.

I always like how the show picks up right where it left off in the last episode. In the episode I am watching now, the location is Virginia City, Nevada. Near the beginning of the show, they showed Piper's Opera House and some actor mentioned Reno was "90 miles away." That is nowhere near true, and later on, Martin Milner mentioned Reno was "30 miles away," which is more or less accurate. Then they filmed scenes in Reno, at the Mapes Hotel (1947-2000), which was the place to be back then. I had my landlord watch this episode, and it brought back a lot of memories to him. He has been in Reno since 1947, the year the Mapes was built. The hotel was the first hotel/casino in Nevada.

In another episode, featuring Martha Hyer as a blind woman, it featured a seeing-eye dog called "Rex." I was wondering if the dog was actually a real seeing-eye dog. At the end of the show, during the credits, he was credited as "Special Guest Star Rin Tin Tin," descendant of the original (1918-1932), and probably the same dog or the son of the dog (Flame, Jr.) who was in the 1950s television show.*

It's fun to look at these shows, and see how various parts of the country looked then as opposed to now.

This link has a very good recent interview with George Maharis.

*--The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, which I remember in reruns, was produced from 1954-1959 by Screen Gems, which also produced Route 66. The dog in the Route 66 episode either was the main dog on the earlier series or else he was one of the other dogs playing the part in the show.