Darren McGavin
Expand

Darren McGavin

Biography

Was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears. He appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the 1950s television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. From 1959-1961, McGavin starred in the NBC western series Riverboat, first with Burt Reynolds and then with Noah Beery, Jr.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Darren McGavin licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears. He appeared as the tough-talking, funny detective in the 1950s television series Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. From 1959-1961, McGavin starred in the NBC western series Riverboat, first with Burt Reynolds and then with Noah Beery, Jr.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Darren McGavin licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Personal Info

Known For Acting

Gender Male

Known Credits 114

Birthday 1922-05-07

Day of Death 2006-02-25

Place of Birth Spokane, Washington, U.S.

Official Site -

Also Known As

  • W. Lyle Richardson

Keyboard Shortcuts

Acting TV ShowsMovies

— Waikiki as Captain
2005 Night Stalker (1 episode)
1996 Millennium (1 episode)
1995 Billy Madison as Brian Madison
1994 Gargoyles (1 episode)
1994 Touched by an Angel (1 episode)
1994 A Perfect Stranger as John Henry Phillips
1993 Grace Under Fire (1 episode)
1993 The X-Files (2 episodes)
1993 The American Clock as Older Arthur Huntington
1992 Mastergate as Folsom Bunting
1992 Happy Hell Night as Henry Collins
1991 Civil Wars (1 episode)
1991 The Commish (2 episodes)
1991 Blood and Concrete as Hank Dick
1991 Sisters (1 episode)
1991 Perfect Harmony as Mr. Hobbs
1990 Captain America as General Fleming
1990 By Dawn's Early Light as Condor - Secretary of Interior
1990 Child in the Night as Os Winfield
1989 Around the World in 80 Days (3 episodes) as Benjamin Mudge
1988 Murphy Brown (4 episodes)
1988 Monsters (1 episode)
1988 Dead Heat as Dr. Ernest McNab
1988 Inherit the Wind as E.K. Hornbeck
1988 The Diamond Trap as Chief Walter Vadney
1987 From the Hip as Craig Duncan
1986 Raw Deal as Chief Harry Shannon
1985 Turk 182! as Det. Kowalski
1984 Tales from the Darkside (1 episode)
1984 Murder, She Wrote (1 episode)
1984 Highway to Heaven (1 episode)
1984 The Natural as Gus Sands
1983 A Christmas Story as The Old Man (Mr. Parker)
1983 The Hitchhiker (1 episode)
1983 Small & Frye (6 episodes)
1981 Firebird 2015 A.D. as Red
1980 Magnum, P.I. (1 episode)
1980 Hangar 18 as Harry Forbes
1980 The Martian Chronicles (3 episodes) as Sam Parkhill
1980 Ike: The War Years as General George Patton
1979 Tales of the Unexpected (1 episode)
1979 Donovan's Kid as Timothy Donovan
1979 Ike (2 episodes) as Gen. George S. Patton
1978 Hot Lead & Cold Feet as Mayor Ragsdale
1978 Zero to Sixty as Michael Nolan
1977 The Love Boat (2 episodes)
1977 Airport '77 as Stan Buchek
1976 No Deposit, No Return as Duke
1975 Hay que matar a B. as Pal Kovak
1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker (20 episodes) as Carl Kolchak
1973 Police Story (1 episode)
1973 The Evil Touch (3 episodes)
1973 The Six Million Dollar Man as Oliver Spencer
1973 The Night Strangler as Carl Kolchak
1972 43: The Richard Petty Story
1972 The Rookies as Sergeant Eddie Ryker
1972 Something Evil as Paul Worden
1972 The Night Stalker as Carl Kolchak
1972 Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole as Dr. Lou Grazzo
1971 The Death of Me Yet as Joe Chalk
1971 Mrs. Pollifax: Spy as Nexdhet
1971 V.I.P. Schaukel (1 episode)
1970 Tribes as Drake
1970 The Challengers as Jim McCabe
1970 Berlin Affair as Paul Killian
1970 The Challenge as Jacob Gallery
1969 Bracken's World (1 episode)
1969 Anatomy of a Crime
1968 The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1 episode)
1968 The Name of the Game (3 episodes)
1968 The Outsider (26 episodes) as David Ross
1968 Mission Mars as Col. Mike Blaiswick
1967 The Outsider as David Ross
1967 Mannix (1 episode)
1967 Cimarron Strip (1 episode)
1967 Custer (1 episode)
1966 Mission: Impossible (1 episode)
1966 Felony Squad (1 episode)
1965 The Great Sioux Massacre as Captain Frederick William Benton
1964 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1 episode)
1964 The Rogues (1 episode)
1964 Bullet for a Badman as Sam Ward
1963 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (2 episodes)
1962 The Virginian (2 episodes)
1961 Ben Casey (1 episode)
1961 Dr. Kildare (4 episodes)
1961 The Defenders (1 episode)
1961 Witchcraft as Fred
1960 Route 66 (1 episode)
1960 Stagecoach West (1 episode)
1960 The Islanders (1 episode)
1959 Riverboat (44 episodes) as Captain Grey Holden
1959 Rawhide (1 episode)
1958 The Case Against Brooklyn as Pete Harris
1958 Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (79 episodes)
1957 Beau James as Charley Hand
1957 The Delicate Delinquent as Mike Damon
1955 The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell as Capt. Russ Peters
1955 The Man with the Golden Arm as Louie
1955 The Alcoa Hour (2 episodes)
1955 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (2 episodes)
1955 Gunsmoke (3 episodes)
1955 A Word to the Wives... as George Peters
1955 Summertime as Eddie Yaeger
1954 Climax! (1 episode)
1952 Omnibus (1 episode)
1951 Tales of Tomorrow (1 episode)
1950 Robert Montgomery Presents (1 episode)
1949 Suspense (3 episodes)
1948 Studio One (3 episodes)
1948 The Philco Television Playhouse (1 episode)
1945 She Wouldn't Say Yes as The Kid - Soldier in Hospital (uncredited)

Directing

1973 Happy Mother's Day, Love George … Director
1973 The Evil Touch (3 episodes) … Director
1959 Riverboat (1 episode) … Director

Writing

1978 Zero to Sixty … Screenplay

Production

1974 Kolchak: The Night Stalker (20 episodes) … Producer

By signing up for an account on TMDb, you can post directly to Twitter and Facebook.

You need to be logged in to continue. Click here to login or here to sign up.

Login

Sign Up

Global

s focus the search bar
p open profile menu
esc close an open window
? open keyboard shortcut window

On media pages

b go back (or to parent when applicable)
e go to edit page

On TV season pages

→ (right arrow) go to next season
← (left arrow) go to previous season

On TV episode pages

→ (right arrow) go to next episode
← (left arrow) go to previous episode

On all image pages

a open add image window

On all edit pages

t open translation selector
ctrl+ s submit form

On discussion pages

n create new discussion
w toggle watching status
p toggle public/private
c toggle close/open
a open activity
r reply to discussion
l go to last reply
ctrl+ enter submit your message
→ (right arrow) next page
← (left arrow) previous page