Gary Fred Merrill

Gary Fred Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990)

He began acting in 1944, while still in the United States Army Air Forces, in the play Winged Victory. Before entering films, Merrill's deep cultured voice won him a recurring role as Batman in the Superman radio series. His film career began promisingly, with roles in films such as Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and All About Eve (1950), but he rarely moved beyond supporting roles in his many Westerns, war movies, and medical dramas. He played a detective and love interest of Barbara Stanwyck's character in Witness to Murder (1954). His television career was extensive. He appeared from 1954 to 1956 as Jason Tyler on the crime drama Justice. In 1964, he starred as city editor Lou Sheldon in the short-lived drama The Reporter. In 1967, he starred in the Elvis Presley film Clambake, with costar James Gregory. Aside from an occasional role as narrator, Merrill essentially retired from the entertainment business after 1980. Shortly before his death, he authored the autobiography Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989). Merrill's first marriage, to Barbara Leeds in 1941, ended in divorce in Mexico on July 28, 1950. That same day, he married Bette Davis, his costar from All About Eve, and adopted her daughter, Barbara, from a previous marriage. They adopted two more children, Margot and Michael, but they had a bitter divorce in 1960.

Merrill died from lung cancer on March 5, 1990, age 74. He is buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Falmouth, Maine.