Former Another World writer Jan Merlin died on September 20 in Los Angeles. He was 94.
Born on April 3, 1925, Merlin was a torpedo man aboard U.S. Navy destroyers during World War II. He studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and appeared in the ensemble in the original 1948 Broadway production of "Mister Roberts," starring Henry Fonda.
From 1950-54, Merlin starred as Roger Manning on the kids TV program Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, based on a comic strip.
He moved to Hollywood for a role in Six Bridges to Cross (1955), starring Curtis, then appeared with Mamie Van Doren in Running Wild (1955), with Dale Robertson in A Day of Fury (1956), with Tom Tryon in Screaming Eagles (1956) and with Ann Sheridan in Woman and the Hunter (1957).
In 1958-59, Merlin portrayed Lt. Colin Kirby on The Rough Riders, an ABC series set in the aftermath of the Civil War.
His credits also included the...
Born on April 3, 1925, Merlin was a torpedo man aboard U.S. Navy destroyers during World War II. He studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and appeared in the ensemble in the original 1948 Broadway production of "Mister Roberts," starring Henry Fonda.
From 1950-54, Merlin starred as Roger Manning on the kids TV program Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, based on a comic strip.
He moved to Hollywood for a role in Six Bridges to Cross (1955), starring Curtis, then appeared with Mamie Van Doren in Running Wild (1955), with Dale Robertson in A Day of Fury (1956), with Tom Tryon in Screaming Eagles (1956) and with Ann Sheridan in Woman and the Hunter (1957).
In 1958-59, Merlin portrayed Lt. Colin Kirby on The Rough Riders, an ABC series set in the aftermath of the Civil War.
His credits also included the...
- 9/26/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
Jan Merlin, an Emmy-winning writer and actor best remembered for early TV series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, has died at the age of 94.
Merlin’s death was confirmed by his family and collaborator William Russo, with whom he wrote books about Hollywood.
Merlin won a writing Emmy in 1975 for daytime NBC soap opera Another World.
As an actor, he built an early reputation for playing villainous characters.
“A veteran of the Navy in World War II, Jan went from the military during the big war to the Neighborhood Playhouse where he learned the craft of acting, though he had many talents,” wrote Russo.
“We wrote about Boys Town, Billy Budd, Reflections in a Golden Eye, among other films, giving a unique perspective on daily life during the studio shoot. He knew Brando, Taylor, Clift, James Dean, in ways that others could never understand. He threw James...
Merlin’s death was confirmed by his family and collaborator William Russo, with whom he wrote books about Hollywood.
Merlin won a writing Emmy in 1975 for daytime NBC soap opera Another World.
As an actor, he built an early reputation for playing villainous characters.
“A veteran of the Navy in World War II, Jan went from the military during the big war to the Neighborhood Playhouse where he learned the craft of acting, though he had many talents,” wrote Russo.
“We wrote about Boys Town, Billy Budd, Reflections in a Golden Eye, among other films, giving a unique perspective on daily life during the studio shoot. He knew Brando, Taylor, Clift, James Dean, in ways that others could never understand. He threw James...
- 9/24/2019
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Jan Merlin, who played villains in dozens of films and TV shows and good guys on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 94.
In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.
He ...
In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.
He ...
- 9/23/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jan Merlin, who played villains in dozens of films and TV shows and good guys on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 94.
In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.
Merlin ...
In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.
Merlin ...
- 9/23/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Roger Corman’s ferocious gangster epic (more squibs!) bounces back in a UK Region B edition, noisier and bloodier than ever. Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker and a couple of dozen top-notch hoods replay the ugly events that led up to the notorious 1929 gangland slaying — which now almost seems tame — where gun massacres are concerned, today ‘Every Day Is a Holiday.’
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date April 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern, Harold J. Stone, Kurt Kreuger, Joe Turkel, John Agar, Celia Lovsky, Tom Reese, Jan Merlin,Alex D’Arcy, Reed Hadley, Gus Trikonis, Charles Dierkop, Alex Rocco, Leo Gordon, Russ Conway, Jonathan Haze, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Jack Nicholson, Joan Shawlee.
Cinematography Milton Krasner
Art Direction Philip Jefferies,...
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date April 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern, Harold J. Stone, Kurt Kreuger, Joe Turkel, John Agar, Celia Lovsky, Tom Reese, Jan Merlin,Alex D’Arcy, Reed Hadley, Gus Trikonis, Charles Dierkop, Alex Rocco, Leo Gordon, Russ Conway, Jonathan Haze, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Jack Nicholson, Joan Shawlee.
Cinematography Milton Krasner
Art Direction Philip Jefferies,...
- 4/21/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Director and documentarian Mark Hartley scores both a film history and comedy success with this ‘wild, untold’ account of the 1980s film studio that was both revered and despised by everyone who had contact with it. The ‘cast list’ of interviewees is encyclopedic, everybody has a strong opinion, and some of them don’t need four-letter words to describe their experience!
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
On a double bill with
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region
2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99
Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
On a double bill with
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region
2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99
Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...
- 4/8/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ten years ago I attended the Lone Pine Film Festival for the first time. It was the 17th annual celebration in 2006 of a festival dedicated to the heritage of movies (mostly westerns, but plenty of other genres as well) shot in or near the town of Lone Pine, California, located on the outer edges of the Mojave Desert and nestled up against the Eastern Sierra Mountains in the shadow of the magnificent Mt. Whitney. The multitude of films that could and have been celebrated there were most often shot at least partially in the Alabama Hills just outside of town, a spectacular array of geological beauty that springs out of the landscape like some sort of extra-planetary exhibit, a visitation of natural and very unusual formations that have lent themselves to the imaginations of filmmakers here ever since near the dawn of the Hollywood filmmaking industry.
In writing about the...
In writing about the...
- 10/23/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Author Tom Weaver, frequent Fangoria/Starlog contributor and one of the genre’s leading scholars, continues his series of books featuring interviews with horror, sci-fi, B-movie and television legends in I Talked With A Zombie. Out now from McFarland Publishing, the hefty tome features in-depth chats with 23 such personages, many of which hail from classic fantasy television.
“In addition to all the movie people interviewed in the book, there are also a number of TV stars,” Weaver tells us, going on to name a few: “Ron Harper talking about his Planet Of The Apes series and why it was so short-lived, Jimmy Lydon on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Robert Conrad talking about the stunts of The Wild Wild West, James Darren and Robert Colbert on The Time Tunnel and my favorite, what might be the first-ever three-way chat with the three stars of Tom Corbett Space Cadet: Frankie Thomas, Jan Merlin and Al Markim.
“In addition to all the movie people interviewed in the book, there are also a number of TV stars,” Weaver tells us, going on to name a few: “Ron Harper talking about his Planet Of The Apes series and why it was so short-lived, Jimmy Lydon on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Robert Conrad talking about the stunts of The Wild Wild West, James Darren and Robert Colbert on The Time Tunnel and my favorite, what might be the first-ever three-way chat with the three stars of Tom Corbett Space Cadet: Frankie Thomas, Jan Merlin and Al Markim.
- 11/18/2008
- Fangoria
American actor Frankie Thomas died in a Los Angeles hospital last Thursday of respiratory failure. He was 85. Thomas cut his acting teeth on the Broadway, New York City, stage in the 1930s before making the move to Hollywood. He starred in a number of films including A Dog Of Flanders and The Major And The Minor, but he is best known for his lead role in 1950s US TV series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. His co-star Jan Merlin says, "Frankie looked like the all-American boy. Everyone in the room knew immediately this was the guy we were going to get." Thomas turned his back on acting when the show closed in 1955 and pursued a career as a TV, radio and novel writer. He was buried on Tuesday dressed in his space cadet costume.
- 5/18/2006
- WENN
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