Denny Miller
Denny Scott Miller (born Dennis Linn Miller; April 25, 1934 – September 9, 2014) was an American actor, perhaps best known for his regular role as Duke Shannon on "Wagon Train", his guest-starring appearances on "Gilligan's Island" and "Charlie's Angels", and his 1959 film role as Tarzan. Background. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, Miller was a basketball player for the UCLA Bruins at the University of California, Los Angeles, where his father was a physical education instructor. In his senior year, while he was working as a furniture mover to pay for school, Miller was discovered  on Sunset Boulevard by a Hollywood agent who signed him with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His screen test was directed by George Cukor. Acting career. Miller became the first blond Tarzan in "Tarzan, the Ape Man" (1959), a cheapie/quickie which lifted most of its footage from earlier Johnny Weissmuller movies. Miller had been recommended by someone else considered for the role, William Smith, later a star of the NBC "Laredo" western series. MGM had Miller under contract for twenty months; in that time, he worked only eight weeks as Tarzan. Miller did guest spots on a number of television series , such as "Northwest Passage" and "Overland Trail". In 1960, the 26-year-old Miller appeared as Wilkie, the son of a powerful rancher, in the "License to Kill" episode of "Laramie". He also appeared on "Have Gun, Will Travel" and an episode of "The Rifleman" as a dimwitted gunfighter named Reuben Miles. From 1961 to 1964, Miller was a regular on "Wagon Train" in the role of the scout, Duke Shannon. After the cancellation of "Wagon Train" in 1965, Miller starred as Mike McCluskey on the NBC sitcom "Mona McCluskey". About this time, Miller also guest starred on CBS's  Gunsmoke, ABC's "The Fugitive", and NBC's "The High Chaparral". Miller guest-starred twice on CBS's "Gilligan's Island": in 1964 as lost surfer Duke Williams in the episode "Big Man on Little Stick", and in 1967 as a method actor playing Tongo the Ape Man in the episode "Our Vines Have Tender Apes". In 1970 he was "Moose" on "I Dream of Jeannie" (Episode #135 "Eternally Yours, Jeannie"). In 1971 he appeared as Joe Terry on "The Men From Shiloh" in the episode titled "The Politician." He appeared on "The Brady Bunch" in 1973 as Carol Brady 's ego-maniacal high-school boyfriend Tank Gates in "Quarterback Sneak". In episode 1.2 of "Alice", "Alice Gets a Pass", he played a gay football player. Miller was cast as Gustaf Olaffson in the 1968 episode, "Britta Goes Home" on the syndicated anthology series, "Death Valley Days". He portrayed John Hays on CBS's "Hawaii Five-O" in the 1968 episode "Pray Love Remember, Pray Love Remember", as a man falsely accused of murder. He appeared in the "Emergency!" episode "Communication Gaffe" in 1974 as a father mistakenly believed to be abusing his young son. He also appeared as a  logging camp foreman involved in a plot to bring down a passing Presidential plane in a 1975 episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man", "Target in the Sky" and in an earlier episode, "The Pal-Mir Escort." In 1976, Miller played a murderer on "Quincy M.E.". In 1977, he had a guest starring role in "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman" episode "The Pied Piper". In 1978, he appeared in the "Battlestar Galactica" episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". As well as the fictitious pulp hero Zoltar in the episode "Goodbye,Polumbus" of the space parody series "Quark". Miller  appeared in the "Circus of Terror" episode of the second season of "Charlie's Angels" as Helmut Klaus, a European knife-thrower hiding out in the circus until he can obtain political asylum. He was a guest villain on Charlie's Angels episode "Stuntwomen". He also appeared on "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" in the episode "The Dorian Secret" and a couple of episodes of "The Incredible Hulk". January 1981 he also appeared on "M*A*S*H" as an MP (Season 9, Episode 8: "Tell it to the Marines"). Miller appeared as an alien invader in the miniseries "V". He was  cast in the 1983 episode "A Sense of Debt" of "Magnum, P.I." as Leon Platt, a bare-knuckles fighter. Miller appeared in over two hundred television series and, for fourteen years, he played the Gorton's Fisherman in TV commercials. His film career included roles in "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" (1961), and the part of "Wyoming" Bill Kelso in "The Party" (1968), which he remembered as the part he most enjoyed. His other film credits included "Making It" (1971), "Doomsday Machine" (1972), "Buck and the Preacher" (1972), "The Gravy Train" (1974), "The Island at the Top of the World  (1974), The Norseman" (1978), "Caboblanco" (1980) and "Circle of Power" (1981). Later years. Miller wrote an autobiography titled "Didn't You Used to Be...What's His Name?" and a book about obesity in the United States called "Toxic Waist?...Get to Know Sweat!". Miller lived with his second wife Nancy in Las Vegas, Nevada and taught classes in relaxation. Death. Miller was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in January 2014. He died in Las Vegas on September 9, 2014 at the age of 80.