Merrill with Bette Davis in a publicity shot for the film All About Eve

Gary F. Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990) was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of TV guest appearances.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he began acting in 1944, while still in the United States Army Air Forces, in Winged Victory. Before entering films, Merrill's deep cultured voice won him a recurring role as Batman in the Superman radio series. His film career began promisingly, with roles in films like Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and All About Eve (1950), but he rarely moved beyond supportive roles in his many Westerns, war movies, and medical dramas. His television career was extensive, if not consistent. Two of his recurring roles, which included Then Came Bronson and Young Doctor Kildare, lasted less than a season.

Merrill's first marriage, to Barbara Leeds in 1941, ended in divorce in 1950. He immediately married Bette Davis, his co-star from All About Eve, adopting her daughter from a previous marriage. He and Davis adopted two more children, but eventually divorced in 1960. Merrill was later romantically linked with actress Rita Hayworth.

Often politically active, he campaigned to elect Edmund Muskie to governor of Maine in 1953. Merrill also took part in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. In response to President Johnson's Vietnam policy, he unsuccessfully sought nomination to the Maine legislature as an anti-war, pro-environmentalist primary candidate^[1].

Aside from an occasional role as narrator, Merrill had essentially retired from the entertainment business after 1980. Shortly before his death, he authored the autobiography Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989). Merrill died of lung cancer at Falmouth, Maine and is buried there in the Pine Grove Cemetery. During his long residence in Falmouth, Merrill received some complaints from the more strait-laced locals due to his habit of appearing in public wearing a caftan instead of a shirt and trousers.

Theatrical film appearances

• Winged Victory (1944)
• Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
• Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
• Mother Didn't Tell Me (1950)
• Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Rawhide (1951)
• The Frogmen (1951)
• Decision Before Dawn (1951)
• Another Man's Poison (1952)
• Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)
• The Girl in White (1952)
• Night Without Sleep (1952)
• A Blueprint for Murder (1953)
• Witness to Murder (1954)
• The Black Dakotas (1954)
• The Human Jungle (1954)
• Navy Wife (1956)
• Bermuda Affair (1956)
• The Missouri Traveler (1958)
• Crash Landing (1958)
• The Wonderful Country (1959)
• The Savage Eye (1960)
• The Great Impostor (1961)
• The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
• Mysterious Island (1961)
• A Girl Named Tamiko (1963)
• The Searching Eye (1964)
• Catacombs (1965)
• Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
• Destination Inner Space (1966)
• Clambake (1967)
• The Incident (1967)
• The Last Challenge (1967)
• The Secret of the Sacred Forest (1970)
• The Power (1968)
• Più tardi, Claire, più tardi (1968)
• Amarsi male (1969)
• Huckleberry Finn (1974)
• Thieves (1977)

Television

Merrill's television work spanned from 1953 to 1980. Most of his appearances were in guest-star roles in episodic and anthology series, although he did work as a regular character in some later TV shows. Among the more famous programs in which he appeared are: The 20th Century-Fox Hour, Wagon Train, Studio 57, Studio One, Playhouse 90, Alcoa theatre, Rawhide, Laramie, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Zane Grey Theater, The Twilight Zone, General Electric Theater, Ben Casey, Combat!, The Outer Limits, Bob Hope's Chrysler Theatre, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel, Marcus Welby, M.D., Medical Center, Kung Fu, and Cannon.

Notes

1. ^ New York Times biography, and All Movie Guide

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=48600&mod=bio

External links

• Gary Merrill at the Internet Movie Database
• Gary Merrill's Gravesite

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