Gavin MacLeod, the beloved star of The Love Boat and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has passed away at the age of 90.
Born Allan George See, MacLeod served in the United State Air Force and then moved to New York City to try to find work as an actor. He took his stage name from a character named Gavin on a TV movie and his acting coach, Beatrice MacLeod. He made his TV debut in 1957 and soon followed with small film roles in 1958. The director Blake Edwards discovered him and featured MacLeod in a number of TV shows produced by Edwards and the 1959 Edwards film comedy, Operation Petticoat, starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. His success in that film led to him getting steady film and TV roles and in 1962, he accepted his first regular TV series gig with the Ernest Borgnine Naval sitcom, McHale’s Navy. He left that series for a small role in the hit 1966 war movie, The Sand Pebbles, but despite that movie’s success, he didn’t break out like he was hoping and he spent the rest of the 1960s doing guest roles on TV shows and small roles in films.
That changed in 1970, when he took his second regular TV gig as newswriter Murray Slaughter on the iconic sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran from 1970-1977. MacLeod and Tyler Moore were the only two actors to appear in every episode of the series. MacLeod was twice nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor.
When The Mary Tyler Moore Show went off the air, MacLeod, now a beloved TV star, moved right into the lead role as Captain Stubing on the romantic comedy/drama The Love Boat, which, while not as critically acclaimed as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (although MacLeod did garner three Golden Globe nominations for Best Lead Actor during the series’ run), was a major ratings success, even finishing in the top five for the 1980-81 season.
MacLeod’s success on The Love Boat made him an iconic pop culture figure, appearing in advertisements for cruise companies for the rest of his life.
MacLeod’s ex-wife helped him convert to Evangelical Christianity in the 1980s and the two re-married. They had a show about marriage on the Trinity Broadcasting Network for over a decade called Back on Course. In 2013, he released the book, This Is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith & Life.
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