Darren McGavin: Forever The Night Stalker

Kolchak: The Night Stalker star, Darren McGavin, died of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital at 7:10 a.m. Saturday, February 25, 2006 with his family at his side. McGavin, born May 7, 1922 in San Joaquin, California, was 83 years old. Just three years ago, his wife of 34 years, actress Kathie Browne, passed away after a brief illness at the age of 63.

Some sources say his real name was Gavin McDarren, but as an actor his stock in trade was the ability to razzle-dazzle — and his most beloved character among genre fans, Carl Kolchak, was also a master of smoke and mirrors.

Kolchak, the irascible but endearing Chicago newspaper reporter, was forever stumbling upon supernatural cases. He contended with vampires, werewolves, zombies and even Jack the Ripper — but in the end he always failed to convince his skeptical editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland), that the stories weren’t merely figments of his own overworked imagination.

The Night Stalker TV movies (1972, 1973) and the 1974-75 series are true cult favorites. So much so, that in the early 1990s the Kolchak character became the inspiration for The X-Files television series.

The X-Files creator Chris Carter later asked McGavin to play the role of Arthur Dales, the man who started the X-Files, in two episodes (Travelers in Season 5, and Agua Mala in Season 6). A third episode, The Unnatural, was also scheduled but failing health forced McGavin to withdraw. (The script, written and directed by series star David Duchovny, was reworked to feature M. Emmet Walsh as Dales's brother.)

McGavin also appeared in a now-favorite yuletide episode of Carter's spin-off series Millennium. The episode was entitled Midnight of the Century, and McGavin memorably played the estranged father of Frank Black (Lance Henriksen).

McGavin's most often recognized work was actually in comedy (A Christmas Story, and the Murphy Brown TV show, for which he garnered an Emmy nomination as an Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series), but it's Kolchak who will always be his signature character.

This fame was cemented recently when The Night Stalker series was remade, starring Stuart Townsend (McGavin's fans apparently responded to the about-face casting by not tuning in), and when a deluxe DVD was released last October containing the original Night Stalker TV movies and the series in its entirety. There was also an outstanding anthology book put out late last year, The Kolchak Chronicles.

According to The Night Stalker Companion (a book written by Mark Dawidziak), McGavin recalled how he was initially cast: "My representatives called to say that ABC had purchased the rights to a book called The Kolchak Papers. They were into a kind of first draft of a script by Richard Matheson, and they called the agency to ask them if I’d be interested in doing it. My representative read it and called me. 'Listen,' the agency representative said, 'there’s this crazy story about a reporter and some kind of monster in Las Vegas. You don’t want to do this'."

Both he and his wife, Kathie, agreed that the script was excellent but the lead was underdeveloped. However, the unique essence of the character — from his tenacity, to his rumpled seersucker suit and straw boater hat — was all McGavin. "When you're working that fast in television," McGavin said of his creation, "you have to draw on yourself. You use who you are to a greater extent than you would in a play or a film."

Kathie said (again, quoted from The Night Stalker Companion), "He's very, very close to Kolchak. The people who really love The Night Stalker love Kolchak because he never gives up. He's fighting, always fighting. You can take the monsters and take them to be anything you want – the government, big business, corrupt officials. Their hero comes at the end, beaten up but ready to go on fighting another day. I think Darren has a lot of that in his own personality."

Fans know that McGavin quickly lost interest in doing the series, and after just one season Kolchak: The Night Stalker was taken off the air. But it enjoyed a loyal cult following for years; McGavin obliged the fans by attending some conventions over the years and he spoke well of the character, if not the machinations behind the show.

The Sci-Fi Channel started airing reruns in the 90s, and that's when I discovered the series. I'd heard about it before, but this was my first opportunity to experience it. I must say, it was like nothing I'd ever seen in series television. In a press release for the original show, the characters were described as "1940s comics come to life in the 1970s," and that juxtaposition certainly contributes to its charm. Kolchak: The Night Stalker had a hardboiled noir feel that was right at home in the Me-Generation, yet somehow it maintained its scary, supernatural edge with equal aplomb.

In my review of the DVD, I noted that if Quincy was the first C.S.I. on the boob-tube, then surely Kolchak was the first paranormal investigator. In his ever-present straw hat and light blue suit, he would doggedly question witnesses with a disarming ease, all the while recording and snapping pictures with brazen chutzpah. A cross between Frank Columbo and Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak was a tenacious believer who would stop at nothing — not even a little chicanery — to get his story.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker is definitely dated to today's jaded eyes. The stories are so very innocent compared to current primetime hits. The special effects, though wisely minimal, were cheesy at best. The leading man didn't look like he just came off a GQ photo shoot. Yes, it's admittedly a dated relic — but charmingly so. Like a pair of old, soft slippers, the Kolchak stories are a welcome friend on a rainy day, just a remote control click away.

I thought it would be interesting to approach some of my friends and colleagues on the horror beat to see what they thought of McGavin or/and The Night Stalker. Here are some of them (keep checking back for more, as they're added).

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Remembrances of Darren McGavin:

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· NANCY HOLDER, author of Queen of the Slayers, The Watchers Guide: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and co-editor of Outsiders

Scratch a horror writer and you'll find a Kolchak fan. Some of The Night Stalker episodes were terrifying; others were unbelievably corny. But Kolchak was in all of them, so who gave a damn? What a pleasure, just to sit down and listen to that staccato delivery, that energy, and the sheer joy of Darren McGavin at work. Some of my best conversations with other horror writers have been sitting in bars or at bonfires or just somewhere, reminiscing about The Night Stalker.

And the annual viewing of A Christmas Story — The leg lamp! "You're gonna put your eye out with that thing!"

Oh, my God, I am so sad. But grateful, too, for the chance to have been there.

· BILL MOSELEY, actor in Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, Carnivale, The Devil's Rejects

I loved Darren McGavin's dry wit and perseverance as he tackled a host of hideosities from one episode to the next of The Night Stalker. Carl Kolchak applied the same gritty reporter's determination and lack of being impressed to tracking vampires as he would to those scumbags at Enron! He was the Rockford of horror, and the downbeat, realistic city settings made the monsters even scarier!

Thanks for everything, Darren.

· SCOTT NICHOLSON, author of The Home, The Manor, The Harvest

Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the original movie, was one of my formative horror experiences. For one, it was one of the few times a vampire tale has ever been

scary to me. Secondly, the character of Kolchak was the perfect vehicle for exploring this type of horror.

It's a bit ironic that I myself have grown up to be a skeptical journalist who, upon uncovering an unwholesome truth, has difficulty convincing anyone else.

· DON MANCINI, creator of the Child's Play movie franchise, director of Fitting Punishment ("Tales From the Crypt"), creator of the upcoming Kill/Switch television series

Along with Dark Shadows — another Dan Curtis production — The Night Stalker was a potent dose of TV horror that I looked forward to swallowing every week as a kid. Darren McGavin was unforgettable as the show's rumpled, American Van Helsing, a Columbo for the horror set.

· ROBERT WEINBERG, author of The Occult Detective, The Science of Supervillains, Genius Loci ("The Kolchak Chronicles")

Carl Kolchak might not have been the first supernatural detective, nor the most successful, but he sure was the most entertaining. There's more than a trace of Kolchak in my own psychic sleuth, Sidney Taine, and that's no accident. That's because Darren McGavin did such a marvelous job of portraying a cynical news reporter with an eye for a good story who didn't let minor problems like zombies or vampires get in his way.

· DAVID MORRELL, author of First Blood, Nightscape, Creepers

I met Darren McGavin in 1989 at a publicity gala that NBC was sponsoring in Los Angeles. We both had projects that the network was about to air (he had a role in the TV miniseries of Around the World in Eighty Days, as I recall, and my miniseries of The Brotherhood of the Rose was coming up). As a consequence, we were introduced.

When I shook hands with him, I realized that his fingers were stiff from arthritis. I spent a couple of minutes, praising him for his work. I mentioned an excellent private eye series he did called The Outsider, and of course, I had plenty to say about his immortal portrayal of Kolchak in the various incarnations of The Night Stalker. "Yeah, yeah, that's all they ever talk about. The things I did when I was young," he replied. It was a touching moment that goes to the heart of the ultimate tragedy that actors face. Their joy is performing, and yet eventually all their best work will be behind them, much of it not even available for viewing.

In the case of The Night Stalker, we now have this portrayal of Kolchak on several DVDs and can view them whenever we wish. No one truly dies as long as that person is remembered.

Godspeed to Darren McGavin whose acting talent made an impression on so many people and who on DVD is forever young.

· AMANDA J. REYES, writer for Pretty/Scary, Retro Slashers, Film Threat

One of the major downsides of my obsession with TV Movies of the 70s & 80s is that I have to see so many icons pass. For most, Darren was Icon A #1 for his effortless performance in Kolchak: The Night Stalker TVMs and short-lived series.

In fact, Darren was in a lot of shows and a mainstay in the world of film and TV since the 40s. He may have been the most successful character actor the world ever saw. His undeniable charm made you smile when you saw his name in the credits or heard that gravelly voice coming out of your TV set.

His charisma gave him the kind of sex appeal and all around likability that transcended his grizzled features. You could see why Carol Lynley spent 'some time' with him in The Night Stalker (1972) directed by another one of my heroes, John Llewellyn Moxey. McGavin symbolizes a decade of real men playing real men, something I fear we will never see again.

There isn't much I can say about Darren that you're not already thinking. A wonderful talent and icon, it is a great loss to those of us who looked up at that shining box and let him scare the pants off us. For many, it was these defining moments that made us love TV movies and it is here that he will live forever.

R.I.P., Darren.

· HARRY SHANNON, author of Night of the Beast, Bad Seed; screenwriter of Dead and Gone

I remember watching The Night Stalker for the first time in the early 1970s. I was in the hospital recovering from major surgery, and totally looped out of my mind on pain medication, so that movie scared the hell out of me! Darren McGavin was just brilliant as the oddball reporter, and added just enough camp humor.

Many years later, I became friendly with Richard Matheson, who wrote the script, and spoke fondly of the star. Then, in the early 1990's, I was music supervisor on a Disney cable film he worked on called Perfect Harmony. I tried, but wasn't able to shuffle my schedule to visit the set and meet Darren in person. I've always regretted that. He will be missed.

· CHUCK WILLIAMS, actor in Bubba Ho-Tep, Dark Walker; producer of Straight Into Darkness

Darren McGavin was one classy actor. I remember as a young teenager running home late night from my friends house after watching The Night Stalker, and being scared to death that some creature would come out of the shadows to get me. Darren McGavin made that world real. Still today, I have problems talking into a tape machine, not thinking there is some creature behind me.

· KENNETH J. HALL, writer/director of The Halfway House, Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout; writer (story), The Puppet Master

It was dead in the middle of a sleepless night when Sunday, February 26 had just turned into Monday, February 27. I was browsing through news bulletins on the internet when I came across the tragic news: character actor Darren McGavin had died! The coroner chalked it up to natural causes. Regardless of the circumstances, Kolchak the Night Stalker was no more!

I wrote the above sentences while trying to imagine how they would sound with the late actor's ironic, film noir-ish delivery. After trying long and hard, I can almost hear him in my head. I hope you can too... and remember him with fondness.

· HEIDI MARTINUZZI, director of Pretty Disgusting Productions, webmistress of Pretty/Scary, writer for Bloody Disgusting

Darren's television career inspired so many other sci-fi/horror television shows that it's hard not to figure him into my childhood horror inspirations. He was a staple of my horror television upbringing just like Elvira, The Munsters, Rod Serling, and Tales from the Crypt were. We've got to remember also that there'd be no X-Files, or Agent Mulder, if Darren hadn't made it cool first.

· GREG LAMBERSON, director of Naked Fear, New York Vampire, Slime City

When I was a kid, The Night Stalker was the first movie that really scared me, and Darren McGavin was the first actor I was scared for. The next day in school, I was surprised to discover that all of my classmates had watched the original broadcast as well. The same thing happened the following year, when ABC repeated the TV movie.

When CBS repeated the series late at night, in the days before cable TV, I sacrificed my Friday nights to watch it. I also watched shows like Magnum, P.I. and Murphy Brown solely for McGavin's guest appearances. The TV movie Tribes, which I own on VHS, and The Natural, showed what a gifted actor McGavin was.

The only good thing I have to say about ABC's recent remake starring Stuart Townsend is that it inspired Universal to release the McGavin version on DVD. McGavin's Kolchak was a worthy successor to Abraham Van Helsing, and he held the fort until another vampire layer stormed the airwaves.

· JOE GENTILE, publisher of Moonstone Books, The Kolchak Chronicles

It's all a bit surreal for us here at Moonstone. Darren was very sick when we got the Kolchak license. We never got the chance to meet him, which I do regret. Kolchak is what drew a lot of us together here. I have met some wonderful people, and made some great friends all due to Kolchak.

I know Darren was appreciated for a lot of his other work, but I suggest to anyone out there who is a fan of the show, read one of the original TV scripts for Kolchak. You will experience right then, what many have known all along. Darren was a gifted actor on par with the very top echelon of his craft. Darren McGavin gave his all to that character. He is the sole reason why we remember Kolchak today. Without him, the scripts are just forgettable 70's TV script, hardly worth the read.

He will be remembered here forever.

· MICK GARRIS, director of The Stand, Desperation, creator of Masters of Horror TV series

Darren McGavin was one of a kind, and not just in the horror genre. He was smart, acerbic, vulnerable and tough, and really, really funny. There had never been a character like Carl Kolchak before And despite the brilliance of the Richard Matheson script and everything else about the movie, it was McGavin's performance that was the glue that held it all together, and us in its thrall. Craggy, tough, cynical, and scared shitless, he made an indelible impression in a world of vacuous, pretty-boy heroes.

Had he only made The Night Stalker and A Christmas Story, he would have been one of the greats, but the list of his achievements goes far beyond that.

· WILLIAM MALONE, director of FearDotCom, House on Haunted Hill, Fair-Haired Child (Masters of Horror)

It's sad because it really is the end of an era. I loved the original Night Stalker. McGavin was hilarious as Kolchak and always great fun to watch. His performance gave us an enduring character that we could always identify with. Too bad the producers of the new show weren't able bring us more of McGavin's irreverent charm. Maybe it just shows how good he really was.

· SID HAIG, actor in Spider Baby, House of 1000 Corpses, Little Big Top

Darren McGavin was one of the most honest actors I have ever seen. On Night Stalker you believed that he believed in the stories no matter how far fetched they were. He was able to bring you into the story and make you a part of the drama. His timing was always on the money, and I don't think I ever saw a bad performance from him on any level.

· DOUG HUTCHISON, actor in The Green Mile, I Am Sam, X-Files (Victor Tooms)

I used to watch The Night Stalker every week when I was a kid. Kudos to Darren McGavin for scaring the piss out of me and forcing me to pull the sheets up over my head at bedtime!

Resources:

Darren McGavin Official Website

Kolchak on "The Thrilling Detective"

Moonstone Books, publisher of The Kolchak Chronicles