Gavin MacLeod Dies: ‘Love Boat’ Captain And ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ Colleague Was 90
He was number 266 on the list.
Gavin MacLeod, who was the Love Boat captain and played Murray on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, two of the top television shows of the 1970s and 1980s, died today at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. MacLeod was 90 and his death was confirmed by his nephew, Mark See.
No cause of death was revealed, but MacLeod had been in ill health over the last few months.
The affable actor played head writer Murray Slaughter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and appeared in all 168 episodes over seven years, ending in 1977. He then pulled off a rarity, moving from one long-running hit show to another.
As Captain Stubing on The Love Boat, he appeared in 249 episodes, and later returned in the role for the TV movie The Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage in 1990 and for the “Reunion” episode of the rebooted series Love Boat: The Next Wave in 1998.
MacLeod was born Allan George See in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He grew up in Pleasantville, N.Y. and went to Ithaca College, where he studied acting and graduated in 1952. After a stint in the US Air Force, he moved to New York City and worked at Radio City Music Hall as an usher and elevator operator while pursuing acting.
MacLeod made his film debut in the 1958 Susan Hayward starrer I Want to Live, playing a police lieutenant.
From there, he played a G.I. in Gregory Peck’s Pork Chop Hill and Blake Edwards’ WWII comedy Operation Petticoat, starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. Based on that body of work, he became a regular in an assortment of media. He had a minor role in the TV show McHale’s Navy, was in 1960 thriller Twelve Hours to Kill with Barbara Eden, the Blake Edwards’ musical comedy High Time, starring Bing Crosby and Fabian, among other roles.
MacLeod left McHale’s Navy to appear in the film The Sand Pebbles, starring Steve McQueen, and later appeared in a host of films, including A Man Called Gannon and the Peter Sellers comedy The Party in 1968; The Thousand Plane Raid, The Comic and The Intruders in 1969; and in 1970, the World War II caper film Kelly’s Heroes.
During that period, he was also busy in guest roles in top television shows, including Perry Mason, Ben Casey, Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, The Big Valley, The Andy Griffith Show, My Favorite Martian, and Hogan’s Heroes.
He also appeared on the December 1961 The Dick Van Dyke Show, his first time working with Mary Tyler Moore.
His memoir, This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith & Life, was published in 2013.
MacLeod was first married from 1955-1972 to Joan F. Rootvik, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. He married actress Patti Kendig in 1974. They divorced in 1982 but remarried in 1985.He is survived by Kendig and the four children by Rootvik.
MacLeod married his second wife Patti in 1974. Both were previously divorced. The couple divorced in 1982, but remarried in 1985. During the mid-1980s, they became Evangelical Protestants and credited their faith for bringing them back together.
During his time as the Captain on The Love Boat, MacLeod "very selfishly" divorced Patti. She then spent the next three years seeking help from psychiatrists on both the West and the East coasts. Then one day, his wife received a telephone call from Patti Lewis, first wife of Jerry Lewis, inviting her to a Christian prayer group which contained a number of famous actresses who started to pray for Gavin. MacLeod later said, "From that day, I started to think about her. Something told me to call Patti. I called Patti. I went back to see her the following Monday and things haven't been the same since." MacLeod asked her what had happened. She then explained everything to him including that she had given her life to Jesus Christ.
On September 20, 2009, MacLeod discussed his conversion to Christianity at The Rock Church in Anaheim, California with further guest appearances in 2012.
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role
1958 I Want to Live! The Lieutenant
1959 Compulsion Padua – Horn's Assistant
1959 Pork Chop Hill Private Saxon
1959 Operation Petticoat Seaman Ernest Hunkle, USN
1959 The Gene Krupa Story Ted Krupa (uncredited)[citation needed]
1960 Twelve Hours to Kill Johnny
1960 High Time Professor Thayer
1961 The Crimebusters Harry Deiner
1962 War Hunt Pvt. Crotty
1964 McHale's Navy Seaman Joseph Haines
1965 The Sword of Ali Baba Hulagu Khan
1965 McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force Seaman Joseph Haines
1965 Deathwatch Emil
1966 Baby Makes Three Dr. Charles Norwood
1966 The Sand Pebbles Crosley
1968 A Man Called Gannon Lou
1968 The Party C.S. Divot
1969 The Thousand Plane Raid Sgt. Kruger
1969 The Comic 1st Director
1969 The Intruders Warden
1970 Kelly's Heroes Moriarty, Oddball's bow machine-gunner and mechanic
2002 Time Changer Dr. Norris Anderson
2009 The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry Jonathan Sperry
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1957 The Walter Winchell File Crook Episode: "Act of Folly"
1958 U.S. Marshal Buck Episode: "The Arraignment"
1958 The Walter Winchell File Stone Ballston Episode: "The Walkout"
1958–60 Peter Gunn George Fallon / Mitch Borden 2 episodes
1959–60 Mr. Lucky Salesman / Bugsy McKenna 2 episodes
1959 Men Into Space Dave Parsons "Lost Missile"
1959–62 The Untouchables Three-Fingered Jack White / William 'Porker' Davis / Whitey Metz 3 episodes
1960–68 Death Valley Days Phil Arnold / Dandy Martin 2 episodes
1960 Whirlybirds Bob Nelson
1961 Dr. Kildare Lorenzo Lawson Episode: "Winter Harvest"
1961 Straightaway Episode: "The Heist"
1961 The Dick Van Dyke Show Maxwell Cooley Episode: "Empress Carlotta's Necklace"
1961 The Investigators Frankie Giff Episode: "Style of Living"
1961–65 Perry Mason Dan Platte / Mortimer Hershey / Lawrence Comminger 3 episodes
1962–64 McHale's Navy Seaman Joseph "Happy" Hanes 73 episodes
1964 The Munsters Paul Newmar Episode: "The Sleeping Cutie"
1965 Rawhide Rian Powers Episode: "The Meeting"
1965 Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Fred Fay Episode: "Dance, Marine, Dance"
1965 The Andy Griffith Show Bryan Bender / Gilbert Jamel 2 episodes
1965 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Cleveland Episode: "The Hong Kong Shilling Affair"
1965–66 My Favorite Martian Alvin Wannamaker 2 episodes
1966–69 Hogan's Heroes Gen. von Rauscher / Maj. Kiegel / Gen. Metzger / Maj. Zolle 4 episodes
1967 Combat! British Cpl. Tommy Behan Episode: "The Masquers"
1966 The Rat Patrol Sgt. Gribs Episode: "The Fatal Chase Raid"
1967 The Road West Nick Marteen Episode: "The Eighty-Seven Dollar Bride"
1967–69 The Big Valley Clute / O'Leary / Mace 3 episodes
1968–70 It Takes a Thief Gen. Contell / Seymour / Maj. Kazan 3 episodes
1968 Death Valley Days prospector Phil Arnold Episode: "The Great Diamond Mines"
1969 The Flying Nun Harold Harmon Episode: "A Star Is Reborn"
1968–69 Hawaii Five-O Big Chicken 2 episodes
1970–77 The Mary Tyler Moore Show Murray Slaughter 168 episodes
1974 Only with Married Men Jordan Robbins Movie
1974 Tattletales Himself Games Show/One Week (5 episodes) with wife Patti
1977 Ransom for Alice! Yankee Sullivan Movie
1977–87 The Love Boat Captain Merrill Stubing 250 episodes
1980 Murder Can Hurt You Nojack Movie
1980 Scruples Curt Arvey Miniseries
1985 Hotel Martin 'Merrick' Brenner Episode: "Fallen Idols"
1986 The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible Daniel Episode: "Daniel and the Lion's Den"
1987 Student Exchange Vice Principal Durfner Movie
1990 Murder, She Wrote Art Sommers Episode: "The Big Show of 1965"
1991 The General Motors Playwrights Theater Michael Holmes Episode: "The Last Act Is a Solo"
1993 CBS Schoolbreak Special Robert Carter Episode: "If I Die Before I Wake"
1994 Burke's Law Jerry Marz Episode: "Who Killed the Host at the Roast?"
1998 Love Boat: The Next Wave Captain Merrill Stubing Episode: "Reunion"
2000 Oz Cardinal Frances Abgott Episode: "Works of Mercy"
2001–02 The King of Queens Uncle Stu 2 episodes
2002–03 JAG Raymond Harrick Episode: "Standards of Conduct"
2003 Touched by an Angel Calvin Episode: "The Show Must Not Go On"
2006 That '70s Show Smitty 2 episodes
2009 The Suite Life on Deck Mr. Barker 2 episodes
2011 Pound Puppies Captain Gumble (voice) Episode: "Bone Voyage"
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