Sam Melville (actor)
| Sam Melville | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 20, 1936 Fillmore, Utah, U.S. |
| Died |
March 9, 1989 (aged 52) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film, television actor |
| Years active | 1966–1989 |
Samuel Gardner "Sam" Melville (August 20, 1936 – March 9, 1989) was an American actor who appeared as a guest star on many popular television programs of the 1960s and 1970s. He portrayed Officer Mike Danko in four seasons of Aaron Spelling's ABC series, The Rookies, and The Bear in the classic 1978 surfing movie, Big Wednesday, with Celia Kaye as his unnamed "bride."
Melville also had small parts in Hour of the Gun (1967) playing the role of Morgan Earp, The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) starring Steve McQueen, and the television disaster film Terror in the Sky (1971) as the co-pilot. On Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O, both on CBS, he played villains as a guest-star. However, on the episode "A Mule ... Like the Army's Mule" of the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, Melville portrayed United States Army Lt. Jason Beal, who befriended Sandy King, played by Luke Halpin, the youngest member of the Curly Bill Brocius outlaw gang.[1] In 1967, he guest starred in an episode of the CBS western, Dundee and the Culhane.
Melville again portrayed a villain on CBS's Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and later portrayed Mrs. King's ex-husband and father of her children. Oddly, he had also played earlier opposite Kate Jackson as her husband in The Rookies. He guest starred as a jewel thief, alongside Janie Fricke, in the seventh-season episode of CBS's The Dukes Of Hazzard, "Happy Birthday, General Lee".
Melville was born in Fillmore, Utah, and died from heart failure in Los Angeles, California.[2]
References
- ↑ "Death Valley Days: "A Mule ... Like the Army's Mule", October 5, 1968". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
- ↑ "Sam Melville, 52; Actor Co-Starred in 'Rookies'". Los Angeles Times. 11 March 1989. Retrieved 2013-09-30.