Darren McGavin dies at age 83

Darren McGavin, star of TV and film with more than 200 credits in his long and varied career, died Saturday at age 83.

McGavin was a transient in his teen years, spending his time eluding the police in various seamy parts of Tacoma, Washington. He attended college in Stockton, California, but after a year in school he decided to take a chance on acting and moved to Hollywood. There, he received training from legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner. He achieved notoriety when he played Louie, the drug pusher, in Otto Preminger's classic film, The Man with the Golden Arm.

McGavin had a knack for playing the curmudgeon you could count on, cynical characters who regarded the world with weary eyes but who would do the right thing when it mattered.

In Mike Hammer, he played the titular Mickey Spillane character, a tough-talking detective who cracks wise while dodging bullets. McGavin didn't like playing the character, telling a reporter in a 1968 interview that Hammer was "a dummy" and that "I made 72 of those shows and I thought it was a comedy. In fact I played it camp. [Hammer] was the kind of guy who would have waved the flag for [Alabama governer] George Wallace."

He starred many other TV series, including the Burt Reynolds-period action series Riverboat and the Ray Bradury-inspired Martian Chronicles.

In 1983, McGavin starred as "The Old Man" in the much-beloved film A Christmas Story. He brought his characteristic craggly warmth to the role of a dad who has to deal with his son wanting a BB gun for Christmas.

But it was a grumpy newspaper reporter who hunted vampires that is perhaps McGavin's most beloved role.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker aired as a two-hour TV movie, producing boffo ratings, setting a ratings record in 1972. In the movie, McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a Las Vegas reporter who, while investigating a mysterious serial killer, stumbles onto a vampire. The followup movie, The Night Strangler, also tallied good ratings, and the ensuing series placed Kolchak in Chicago, writing for a tyrannical editor and hunting monsters like a sewer creature made from Spanish moss and the modern reincarnation of Jack the Ripper.

The series lasted less than a season, but it inspired many shows that followed, such as X-Files. Last year, CBS launched a much-hyped remake series starring Stuart Townsend that failed to live up to the original in almost every respect, including ratings. The new series premiered at number 64 in the weekly Neilsen ratings, and was cancelled after seven episodes--that's far short of the original's 20 episodes.

McGavin's last TV appearance was in a cameo role in the remake's pilot episode.

McGavin is survived by his four children.