George Maharis born 1 September 1928

George Maharis (September 1, 1928 – May 24, 2023) was an American actor, singer, and visual artist who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66. Maharis also recorded several pop music albums at the height of his fame, and later starred in the TV series The Most Deadly Game. 

George Maharis (real Greek family name is Mahairas) was born in Astoria, New York as one of seven children. His immigrant father was a restaurateur. George expressed an early interest in singing but veered towards an acting career. Trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner and the Actor's Studio with Lee Strasberg, the "Method" actor found roles on dramatic TV, including a few episodes of "The Naked City," and secured an early name for himself on the late 1950s's off-Broadway scene, especially with his performances in Jean Genet's "Deathwatch" and Edward Albee's "Zoo Story". Producer/director Otto Preminger "discovered" George for film, offering the actor a choice of five small roles for his upcoming film Exodus (1960). George chose the role of an underground freedom fighter. 

One of the episodes George did on the police drama "The Naked City" series ("Four Sweet Corners") wound up being a roundabout pilot for the buddy adventure series that would earn him household fame. With the arrival of the series Route 66 (1960), the actor earned intense TV stardom and a major cult following as a Brandoesque, streetwise drifter named Buzz Murdock. Partnered with the more fair-skinned, clean-scrubbed, college-educated Tod Stiles (Martin Milner, later star of Adam-12 (1968)), the duo traveled throughout the US in a hotshot convertible Corvette and had a huge female audience getting their kicks off with "Route 66" and George. 

                                   

During its peak, the star parlayed his TV fame into a recording career with Epic Records, producing six albums in the process and peaking at #25 in the US, in 1962, with the single Teach Me Tonight. Other charted singles included Love Me As I Love You, at #54, Baby Has Gone Bye Bye,at #62: He also had two Hot 100 hit singles in 1963. Don't Fence Me In made #93. His last single to hit the Hot 100, also in 1963, That's How It Goes / It Isn't There peaked at #88. 

He received an Emmy nomination in 1962 for his continuing performance as Buz, but during the middle of the Route 66's third season peak, Maharis abruptly left the series. Maharis told the story that he had contracted infectious hepatitis and that the shoots were so grueling that to continue would risk his health. He asked the producers to give him a less arduous schedule, but they refused, and he left the show. However, others relate a different scenario. Route 66 producer Herbert B. Leonard found out that Maharis was gay and was having a hard time keeping his star’s sexual activities away from the press. 

George & Judy Garland 1963

For whatever reason, Maharis left. His replacement, ruggedly handsome Glenn Corbett, failed to click with audiences and the series was canceled after the next season. Back to films, the brash and confident actor, with his health scare over, aggressively pursued stardom with a number of leads but the duds he found himself in - Quick Before It Melts (1964), Sylvia (1965), A Covenant with Death (1967), The Happening (1967), and The Desperados (1969) prime among his list of disasters - hampered his chances. The best of the lot was the suspense drama, The Satan Bug (1965), but it lacked box-office appeal and disappeared quickly. Moreover, a 1967 sex scandal and a subsequent one in the 7o’s did not help.

He modeled fully nude for the July 1973 issue of Playgirl magazine as one of the first celebrities to do so. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Maharis guest-starred in many television series, including Mission: Impossible, Fantasy Island, Kojak, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, Police Story, Switch, Cannon, Night Gallery, and The Bionic Woman, as well as Murder, She Wrote in 1990. He appeared as Count Machelli, King Cromwell's War Chancellor in The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982). He also starred with the Kenley Players in productions of Barefoot in the Park (1967) and How the Other Half Lives (1973) and in national touring company productions of Company and I Ought to Be in Pictures. In the 1980s, he performed in Las Vegas. In 1993, he performed in Doppelganger. 

In his later years he performed in nightclubs until the early 1990s also pursuing a secondary career as an impressionist painter while splitting his time between New York and his Beverly Hills home where he died on May 24, 2023, at the age of 94 after contracting hepatitis. 

(Edited from Gay Culture Land & Wikipedia)

                                    

Here's a clip of a Bob Dylan Medley from 1965, featuring George Maharis - Like A Rolling Stone, Joe & eddie - What I really want To Do, Dionne Warwick- Mr. Tambourine Man, The Animals - It Ain't Me Babe and entire cast - Blowing In The Wind.