Love Boat captain often played the bad guy

WASHINGTON • American actor Gavin MacLeod, who played a wise-cracking news writer on the classic 1970s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the hospitable cruise ship captain on The Love Boat, died last Saturday, aged 90.

His nephew, Mr Mark See, confirmed his death to Variety magazine. No cause of death was given, it said, but MacLeod's health had declined in recent months.

The bald MacLeod often played villains on television before being cast in the acerbic comic role of Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977 and was one of the most honoured shows of its decade, winning 29 Emmy Awards.

After The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MacLeod was signed for the starring role of Captain Merrill Stubing on ABC's The Love Boat, which ran for 10 seasons from 1977 to 1987.

The series, which featured guests stars in each episode as passengers looking for romance aboard a cruise ship, was not a favourite of critics - a New York Times reviewer once called it "a dreadful porridge" - but it was frequently amusing and popular with viewers.

"I remember TV critics saying, 'How could you do it?'"MacLeod told Entertainment Weekly in 1997, referring to his jump from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to The Love Boat.

"But I loved it. I said, 'This is going to take people away from the everyday burdens of life. It'll give them something to dream about.'"

He also had a regular role on the World War II situation comedy McHale's Navy from 1962 to 1964, but frequently played bad guys like a character named Big Chicken in the crime drama Hawaii Five-O (1968 to 1980).

He appeared in supporting roles in several movies as well, including Kelly's Heroes (1970), with actors Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas, and Operation Petticoat (1959), with late actors Cary Grant and Tony Curtis.

MacLeod was born as Allan See on Feb 28, 1931, in Mount Kisco, New York.

For his show-business career, he changed his first name to Gavin because he liked it and his last name to MacLeod as a tribute to his college acting teacher.

He battled alcoholism during his career and became a devout Christian, starring in the Christian-themed film The Secrets Of Jonathan Sperry in 2009.

He had four children from his first marriage to former Rockette Joan Rootvik, which ended in divorce, and three stepchildren from his second marriage to former dancer Patti Kendig.

REUTERS