Route 66 was an indirect spinoff of Naked City made by the same creators, Herbert B.
Leonard and Stirling Silliphant.
It ran from 1960-1964 with 116 episodes.
The show follows Tod Stiles who decides to travel the United States in his Chevrolet
Corvette.
He’s joined by his best friend Buz Murdock, who was later replaced with the character
Lincoln Case.
The locations changed every week to keep it fresh for viewers.
Like the show it spun off from, it was a semi-anthology with reappearing characters but a new story.
Keep watching to learn how each Route 66 cast member died.
Martin Millner Martin Millner was born on December 28, 1931,
in Detroit, Michigan.
He had Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, circuit dancer Mildred, and film distributor Sam Gordon.
The family moved often and settled in Seattle when he was nine.
That was where he nourished an interest in acting.
He got involved in school and then in a children’s group at the Cornish Playhouse.
Martin moved again with his family to Los Angeles when he was a teenager.
His parents noticed his talent and hired him an acting coach and agent.
His first on-screen appearance was in the 1947 film Life with Father.
He contracted polio a year after that but recovered within a year.
When he was back to full health, Martin had small parts in two more films.
He graduated from North Hollywood High School in 1949.
He landed a minor role in Sands of Iwo Jima that same year.
Martin then continued his education at the University of Southern California.
He dropped out in 1950 to focus on acting.
His first TV appearance came that year when he guest starred on the 28th episode of The
Lone Ranger titled Pay Dirt.
He also got a recurring role as Drexel Potter on The Stu Erwin Show.
He appeared in war films such as Operation Pacific and Mister Roberts.
Martin served for two years in the army in 1952.
He was part of the Special Services at Ford Ord and directed training films.
He performed and emceed skits to entertain the soldiers.
He also continued playing characters on the Dragnet radio series and six episodes of the
TV series from 1952-1955.
A fellow soldier and future star, David Janaseen, encouraged him to keep acting after the war
ended.
Martin did get back to work and got a recurring role in The Life of Riley from 1953-1958.
He also guest-starred in several shows and films, but his most famous roles were yet
to come.
Martin Millner was cast as Tod Stiles in Route 66 in 1960.
He played the character for the entirety of its run.
It was shot on location, so he spent four years traveling the US for the series.
He occasionally brought his family with him.
He met singer and actress Judith Bess Jones at a dinner party in May of 1956.
They were married on February 23, 1957, and had four children.
His oldest daughter Amy, who guest starred on an episode of Adam-12, died of leukemia
in December of 2004.
Adam-12 was another one of Martin’s most successful roles.
His strong working relationship with Jack Webb helped him get the part of Officer Peter
Joseph.
The show’s plots were based on real LAPD cases.
It ran from 1968-1975.
Martin got another continuous part after Adam-12 ended.
He appeared in the series The Swiss Family Robinson, which ran from 1975-1976.
His later work included guest parts on shows such as MacGyver, Airwolf, Murder: She Wrote,
and RoboCop.
Martin joined the fishing radio show Let’s Talk Hook-Up after retiring from acting.
He also returned to Route 66 one final time for the documentary Route 66: Return to the
Road with Martin Miller in 1998.
It saw him driving a 1961 Corvette from Chicago to Santa Monica.
Martin Millner died at home at the age of 83 from heart failure on September 6, 2015.
His remains were cremated.
George Maharis George Maharis was born on September 1, 1928,
in Astoria, Queens.
His early life began much like anyone else’s.
He attended Flushing High School and served in the Marine Corps for 18 months.
He eventually nourished his passion for acting after that at the Actors Studio in New York.
He appeared in off-Broadway productions.
He felt that the smaller productions carried a stigma that affected his theater career
forever, but his talent didn’t go unnoticed.
One critic called his performance in the October 1958 production of Deathwatch as “correctly
volatile, harsh, and stunning.”
He later performed in the first US production of The Zoo Story.
After that, he moved on to TV and film.
His roles included Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, Goodyear Television Playhouse, Naked
City, Exodus, and the soap opera Search for Tomorrow.
He was described in his early career as a tough personality in the tradition of Humphrey
Bogart and John Garfield.
George played Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of Route 66.
It earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in 1962.
He left after 82 episodes before completing the third season.
Allegations arose that he did so to move to films or hide his sexuality.
He cited health problems, namely hepatitis.
The long hours and hazards of shooting on location were too much for him.
The pay wasn’t enough to keep him around, either.
He said in a 1963 interview that “even if you have $4,000,000 in the bank, you can’t
buy another liver.”
George was healthy enough to perform in several films after leaving Route 66.
They included Quick, Before it Melts in 1964, The Satan Bug and Sylvia in 1965, A Covenant
with Death and The Happening in 1967, and The Desperados in 1969.
He returned to TV in 1970 in The Most Deadly Game.
It only lasted for one year and 13 episodes.
He even went back to the theater in the 1967 production of Barefoot in the Park and the
1973 touring companies of Company and I Ought to Be In Pictures.
He had a show in Las Vegas in the 80s, and the 1993 film Doppelganger was one of his
final film roles.
George wore many hats throughout his life and career.
He released albums, and the only Top 40 hit from them was his cover of Teach Me Tonight.
It reached #25 on the charts.
He also performed in nightclubs and was an impressionist painter for several years
George Maharis died from his long struggle with hepatitis on May 24, 2023.
His brother Robert, who also works in the film industry as a location manager, survived
him.
He’s remembered as a devoted method actor.
He intentionally wore a pair of vision-impairing contact lenses for the Route 66 episode Even
the Stones Have Eyes.
He wanted to sell the idea that his character had temporarily lost his vision.
It made the episode memorable, and the scale model of the Lions Camp where they filmed
remains in a small museum today.
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Keep watching to learn how each Route 66 cast member died.
Glen Corbett Glen Corbett was born on August 17, 1933.
Acting was not his first career choice, but a little nudge from a loved one helped him
take the plunge.
He met his wife Judy at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
She was the first one to notice his talent and encouraged him to try out for plays on
campus.
He was performing in one when a talent scout took notice of him as well.
They signed him with Columbia Pictures.
His film debut was in 1959’s The Crimson Kimono.
After that, he appeared in films such as The Mountain Road, Man on a String, and All the
Young Men in 1960.
He played the lead in 1961’s Homicidal and appeared in 1965’s Shenandoah.
Other films included Chisum in 1970, Big Lake in 1971, and Nashville Girl and MIdway in
1976.
Glen finally moved to TV when he replaced George Maharis on Route 66 in 1963.
He played veteran Linc Case.
He did his best but wasn’t able to capture the magic of the two original leads.
Route 66 was canceled soon after in March of 1964.
The role did put his talent on display and expanded his TV opportunities.
He played the lead in Twelve O’CLock High for two episodes of Twelve O’CLock High.
Glen’s later guest spots on TV were plentiful.
He appeared on episodes of the biggest shows of his time, including Gunsmoke, Bonanza,
The Legend of Jesse James, The Virginian, and even Star Trek.
He got a more permanent role on the daytime soap opera The Doctors and stayed from 1976-1981.
He was also a recurring guest star on Dallas from 1983-1984 and again from 1986-1988.
Glen Corbett died at the age of 59 from lung cancer on January 16, 1993.
He was buried in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.
Guest Stars Route 66 has a list of guest stars that goes
on for a cartoonishly long amount of time.
They all went on to have successful careers after the show.
The episode Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing is a significant one for fans of Universal
Classic monsters.
It was the first time Boris Karloff had donned his famous Frankenstein Monster makeup in
years.
Lon Chaney Jr. also took upon the appearance of his famous Wolf Man character.
William Shatner and DeForest Kelly of Star Trek fame appeared in separate episodes.
William was in Build Your Houses with Their Backs to the Sea.
DeForest showed up in 1800 Days to Justice.
Certain episodes of Route 66 also hinted at the roles that would make certain guest stars
famous.
Michael Conrad played a policeman before he earned the role of Sgt.
Phil Esterhaus on Hill Stree Blues.
Alan Alda appeared as a surgeon in Soda Pop and Paper Flags before he played Hawkeye on
M*A*S*H. Hal Smith was credited as “drunk” on Route 66 before he was the town drunk Hal
Smith in The Andy Griffith Show.
It was almost as if being on the show was a predictor of and a key to career success
for everyone who appeared on it.
Has a show ever made you feel like you were traveling around the world without leaving
your couch?
Let us know in the comments.