I met him once
Very nice person. Talked to him for almost twenty minutes.
shareYeah, I can see him as the affable type. Did you get his autograph?
shareI wrote out the details below
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MovieChat Forums > Darren McGavin Discussion > I met him once
I met him on an airplane.
We were on our way home from Florida (I think it was 1979 or 1980) and had a stopover. As passengers were boarding my father looked up and saw him walk in. He pulled his hat off and flipped it into the luggage compartment, exactly the same way he did in the opening credits of Night Stalker. My dad got my attention (actually he slapped me on the knee) and pointed him out. we asked the flight attendant if we could meet him. She asked if we could wait until we were in the air.
They escorted us up and introduced us. I was stunned but got out a "Hello Mr. McGavin" We talked for about twenty minutes and he gave me an autograph on my ticket stub. Kathy Browne was sitting next to him but I didn't recognize her at the time.
Interesting follow up. Several years later when I was in college I saw a magazine with an article about The Night Stalker. I looked in and read the part about him resenting the program and the stress it put on him. First time I had ever heard about it. He never mentioned it while we were talking. Further down in the article he mentions how he met this kid on an airplane 3 or 4 years afterwards who thought he was god for doing it and how they had a great talk about it. Said something along the lines about how that made him realize he'd done the right thing. I was stunned but being cash poor I couldn't buy the magazine at the time (The newsstand didn't take credit cards). I've never been able to find a copy since.
shareWhen was that, around 1985?
shareI think the magazine was around 1986-1987. It may have been for a fifteenth anniversary story. I had it in my head for the longest time that the magazine was Scarlet Street but I found a copy of that issue and the story is not in it.
shareKolchak ran from 1974-1975 so a fifteenth anniversary would have been 1989 or 1990.
shareNo question I could be wrong on the date but the original movie was 1972. Most anniversary commemorations use that date. The Scarlet Street was published in September 1987. The twentieth and twenty fifth anniversary books were published in 1992 & 1997 respectively.
shareGood story. So, are you saying you were the kid he mentioned in the article ?
shareThat’s cool. I remember him mostly from The Night Stalker and A Christmas Story but for the few past years I have seen him while watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents late at night.
shareYou want to see him doing an interesting role, try The Delicate Delinquent with Jerry Lewis. It was originally intended for Dean Martin but he and Jerry had stopped talking by then. Darren made the role his own.
shareI’ll try to catch it.
shareHe was the best. He added an old fashioned (vaudeville influence) showmanship to everything he did.
shareI think he started to resent it because they had him doing everything like he was the show runner. Im glad we had it but it had run its course.
shareGood story; thanks.
shareI was just thinking about him because I was watching the pilot movie for the six million dollar man 1973. He played the sinister overlord of the project which produced The Six Million Dollar Man. He was of course great and Although it seemed he would return for the followup I was disappointed to find he was not in the next one. I realize now it was because of The Night Stalker getting launched. I guess he couldnt do both. They were both Universal properties. Anyway thanks for sharing your story, it was very cool.
shareNot long ago, I discovered surprisingly that he had portrayed Mike Hammer, a favorite detective of mine.
shareHe was on an old Western where he stood up to some bad guys on behalf of a Chinese man and his daughter, played by the lovely France Nuyen (sp?). Was nice to see an actor I like playing a brave and thoughtful character.
I should look up his credits to figure out the show and how poorly I spelled France's name. She really was a beauty and also had a very prolific career.
Turns out it was Gunsmoke, which he appeared on three times.
Many popular actors seem to have appeared early on Gunsmoke, such as Burt Reynolds as the half-breed blacksmith, Quint.
shareFor sure. I was surprised when I looked up Darren's IMDb credits, he had already worked quite a lot, roughly from 1945 up to the 1966 Gunsmoke episode. But his Mike Hammer only lasted maybe a couple seasons, then another series (Riverboat) whose run was even less. Mostly a lot of guest turns on other shows.
shareFor sure he was busy actor all the way through his career. I saw somewhere before he got his tv and film career going in 45 he had already been working on stage and vaudeville. He would have to be a pretty great and humble guy to have been so prolific so so long.
shareIronically he never received any formal acting training. He was working as a carpenter when he was discovered.
shareYeah... Captain Kirk even popped up on it
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