Route 66, Adam-12
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$500,000
If you have aspirations of becoming an actor in Hollywood, one of the best gigs that you can get is on television with a role that lasts in primetime for multiple seasons. Very rarely do actors have two shows that become popular for several years, but one that can claim that is Martin Milner. During the 1960s and 1970s, Milner was one of the biggest stars on television thanks to a pair of shows that made him famous. Though he’s passed away since then and hasn’t had an acting credit in more than 20 years, Milner is still remembered fondly by those that watched his career unfold on television.
Milner came from Detroit, Michigan during a time in which the city was booming. He was born there on December 28, 1931, but he didn’t stick around there for very long. Milner’s family had moved multiple times during his childhood, eventually landing in Seattle, Washington where he first caught the acting bug. After appearing on stage as a youth a handful of times, the Milner family headed down the Pacific coast to Los Angeles, where he’d really have an opportunity to pursue acting.
With the slew of acting teachers available in Los Angeles, Milner developed quickly as an actor and was only a teenager when he was auditioning for film roles. Thankfully, Milner didn’t have to wait long to make his presence felt. Milner was just 15 years old when his first film was released.
That debut role for Milner came in the 1947 film “Life with Father”, which set him up for several more opportunities. He finished out the 1940s with movies such as “Sands of Iwo Jima” and “The Wreck of the Hesperus”. Then, in the 1950s, Milner became very busy.
During this time, Milner had appeared in dozens of films, including some guest spots that went uncredited. His most memorable films from this era included “Battle Zone”, “Navy Wife” and “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”, appearing in a lot of action movies that had to do with war. Television was also a constant for Milner at this point in his career, making guest appearances with recurring roles on “Dragnet”, “The Life of Riley”, “The Millionaire” and many more.
The true breakout for Milner came during the 1960s. He had been so busy with television during the decade that he didn’t appear much in film. He only had a handful of big screen movies that included “Three Guns for Texas” and “Valley of the Dolls”. In fact, Milner had only appeared in two films after 1968, with “The Swiss Family Robinson” coming in 1975 and a 1998 documentary about his time on television.
1960 marked the debut of the series “Route 66”, with Milner taking on the role of Tod Stiles. The series was a big hit for the first part of the decade, lasting for five seasons and more than 100 episodes. Talking about how he landed the role, Milner said that “You know, I had just done a couple of pretty good movies. I had done ‘The Sweet Smell of Success’, I was under contract to Burt Lancaster - to his company, Hecht-Lancaster - and then they loaned me to Warner Bros. for ‘Marjorie Morningstar’. Both of those roles were pretty significant, and Bert Leonard, the producer of ‘Route 66’, saw that and asked me to play the role.”
After the series wrapped up in 1964, Milner continued to make guest appearances for a few years. He popped up on shows such as “The Rat Patrol”, “The Virginian” and “Dragnet”. Another big role for Milner was just on the horizon, though. In 1968, Milner landed the starring role of Officer Pete Malloy in “Adam-12” for nearly 175 episodes. The series ran until the mid 1970s, and Milner played the character on various other series, which included the previously mentioned “Dragnet”, as well as “Emergency!” and “The D.A.”.
“Adam-12” wrapped up in 1975, with Milner taking on a lot of television films and miniseries during the remainder of the decade. He also starred on “The Swiss Family Robinson” that had the film that was also mentioned. During the 1980s, Milner started to cut back on his work, only popping up in a handful of shows like “MacGyver” and “Airwolf”. His final decade of acting came in the 1990s, with his final television roles coming in “RoboCop: The Series” and a 1997 episode of “Diagnosis: Murder”.
Many had associated Milner with his pair of roles that lasted for multiple years, which he actually found to be a bit troublesome. “My main worry is that after a certain point you become so identified with a character and a series that you might not be able to get work when your show goes off the air,” he said. However, Milner was able to walk away on his own terms and focus on his family life.
Having to bury your child is one of the hardest things that someone could possibly do, and sadly Milner had to go through that. Milner’s marriage lasted for nearly 60 years as he and actress Judy Jones tied the knot in 1957. They had four children during their marriage, and his oldest daughter Amy passed away from leukemia in 2004. Just over 10 years later, Milner had also passed away. He was in his Southern California home when he died of a heart attack on September 6, 2015 at 83 years old.
Milner lived a long and happy life, having many memorable roles to his name. Though the younger generation might not remember some of Milner’s work on screen, there’s a long legacy there for the actor that won’t soon be forgotten. “I was never a celebrity,” Milner said upon looking back at his career. “Just a working actor.”
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