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Jan Merlin

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Jan Merlin
Merlin in 2013
Born
Jan Wasylewski

(1925-04-03)April 3, 1925
New York City, U.S.
DiedSeptember 20, 2019(2019-09-20) (aged 94)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • author
  • screenwriter
Years active1946–1992
Spouse(s)Patricia Ann Datz (married 1951–1986, her death); Barbara Doyle (married 1988–2019, his death)
Children1
AwardsGolden Halo Award, 2009 (from Southern California Motion Picture Council)

Jan Merlin (born Jan Wasylewski, April 3, 1925 – September 20, 2019)[1] was an American character actor, television writer, and author.

Early years

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Born as Jan Wasylewski and reared in New York City. Merlin was of Polish American descent with ancestry in Poland. He attended the Grace Church School for Boys and later the renowned premier academic Stuyvesant High School in New York City, before dropping out to join the United States Navy, serving as a Torpedoman, during World War II.[2] He later attended and graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.[3]

Career

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After Merlin's discharge from naval service, he worked in summer stock theater beginning in 1946, and then enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, making his Broadway debut in live theater in 1949 in Mister Roberts, which also starred Henry Fonda,, (along with the subsequent feature film of the same title)..[4]

His professional acting career, which spanned more than five decades, included performances in stage plays on and off Broadway, radio dramas, live and filmed episodes of television series, and more than 30 feature motion pictures. His most recent performances were in live radio dramas broadcast in June 2010. In his film and television work, Merlin was frequently cast as the heavy, and consequently his character very often died onscreen. An early role for him was in the 1956 western playing Billy a small town boy getting mixed up with a gunfighter that dropped in the town in A Day of Fury. In 1960, Merlin played Travers in Hell Bent for Leather, and his other film credits include roles in Guns of Diablo (1965), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Take the Money and Run (1969), The Twilight People (1972), I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973), The Slams (1973), The Hindenburg (1975) and Time Trackers (1989).

Merlin had co-starring roles in two early television series: from 1950 to 1953 as Cadet Roger Manning in Tom Corbett, Space Cadet,[5]: 1091-1092  and in 1959 as Lieutenant Cullen Kirby in the ABC western series The Rough Riders.[5]: 912  In 1958, he also played Kenneth on the NBC drama Kitty Foyle.[5]

In 1960, he was cast as Mick Norton, guesting in the episode "Hostage Island" of the ABC adventure series The Islanders, set in the South Pacific.

Also in 1960 he again died on the screen in season 3, episode 10 of Gene Barry (1919-2009)'s famous Western and historical / biographical television series, Bat Masterson, (1958-1961), playing a wild, gun slinging cowboy, the troubled son of a deceased war hero whose mother left him when he was a child, in the episode "Last Stop To Austin".

He also appeared as Hendry Grant in the 1961 episode "First Blood" of the NBC western series The Tall Man. He made two guest appearances on the famous long-running legal / courtroom drama Perry Mason: in 1958, as Tony Davis in "The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde", and in 1961 as Ralph Quentin in "The Case of the Jealous Journalist." Merlin has earlier appeared in a 1954 episode of Dragnet "The Big Rod", cast as Gregory Moore, a felony hit and run suspect. Merlin played a villain on the futuristic nuclear submarine ''U.S.S. Seaview'' in three episodes of the Irwin Allenscience fiction series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: "No Way Out", "The X Factor" and "Death From The Past". In 1957, he appeared in Season 1 Episode 21 of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre opposite Ernest Borgnine, also a former US Navy man. In 1962, he was cast as Bill Enders in the episode "The Ride" of the NBC western series Bonanza. That same season of 1962, he was cast as bad guy Clint in the western series Laramie episode "The Stolen Tribute" . He would go on to play bad guys twice more on that show set in the old Wyoming Territory, once as actor Karl Swenson's son in the episode "Trial By Fire" and again in 1963, he played Joel Greevy in "The Fugitives". In 1966, he co-starred in the World War II action drama / war TV series in German-occupied Western Europe in Combat! - season 4, episode "One at a Time" as a German Army sniper named Sgt. Erich and again in 1966 in the season 5 episode "Headcount" as a Lt. Geiben.

Merlin received a Daytime Emmy Award in 1975 for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series as part of the NBC Daytime soap opera Another World.[citation needed] He was nominated again in 1976.

His first novel was published in 1982. He currently has a number of novels in print, including Gunbearer, Part I, Gunbearer, Part II, Ainoko, Gypsies Don't Lie, Crackpots, and Shooting Montezuma. He has also self-published several works of fiction and non-fiction with co-author William Russo, including The Paid Companion of J. Wilkes Booth, Troubles in a Golden Eye, MGM Makes Boys' Town, Hanging with Billy Budd, and Frankie Thomas: the Eternal Cadet.

He also appeared in the western frontier television series based on the historical fiction novels of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), set on the Minnesota prairie, ''Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983).

Personal life and death

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Merlin married his first wife Patricia Datz in 1951.[2] They had a son, Peter William Merlin (born 1964). Patricia died in 1986. Two years after his wife's death, Merlin married his second wife Barbara Doyle, and remained married until his death on September 20, 2019. He was 94.[6][7]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1954 Them! Radio Man on the SS Viking Uncredited
1955 Six Bridges to Cross Andy Norris
1955 Big House, U.S.A. Tommy, Accomplice on Fishing Boat Uncredited
1955 Illegal Andy Garth
1955 Running Wild Scotty Cluett
1956 A Day of Fury Billy Brand
1956 Screaming Eagles Lt. Pauling
1956 A Strange Adventure Al Kutner
1956 The Peacemaker Viggo Tomlin
1957 Woman and the Hunter Robert Gifford
1958 Cole Younger, Gunfighter Frank Wittrock
1960 Hell Bent for Leather Travers
1962 Bonanza: The Ride Bill Enders
1963 The List of Adrian Messenger/ The Whistling Man / The Clergyman / The Workman / The Shepherd Uncredited
1963 Gunfight at Comanche Creek Nielsen
1964 The Virginian Sam Lake
1964 Gunsmoke Ed Sykes
1965 Guns of Diablo Rance Macklin
1966 The Oscar Actor Frankie Pulls Knife on Uncredited
1967 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Willie Marks
1969 Strategy of Terror Jon
1969 Take the Money and Run Al – Bank Robber
1972 The Twilight People Steinman
1973 The Slams Saddler
1973 I Escaped from Devil's Island Rosenquist
1974 Little House on the Prairie Jon Nordstrom
1975 The Hindenburg Speck
1988 Permanent Record Minister
1989 Nowhere to Run Mr. Groker
1989 Time Trackers Max Barker
1989 Silk 2 Hancock Gish
1990 False Identity Potter – Pete

References

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  1. ^ Magers, Donna. "Jan Merlin". www.westernclippings.com. Archived from the original on October 31, 2016. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Co-Star Role in 'Rough Riders' Series Caps Long Career for Actor Jan Merlin". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Hawaii, Honolulu. June 13, 1959. p. 59. Retrieved January 11, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. ^ "TV Star to Appear at Little League Opening". The San Bernardino County Sun. California, San Bernardino. May 14, 1961. p. 18. Retrieved January 11, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. ^ "Jan Merlin". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 568. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
  6. ^ "Jan Merlin, Actor and Emmy-Winning Writer, Dies at 94". The Hollywood Reporter. September 23, 2019.
  7. ^ "Jan Merlin Obituary - Burbank, California | Legacy.com". Legacy.com. September 21, 2019.
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