Denny Miller

Actor Denny Miller's career began like a Hollywood fairytale. Miller, an athlete, played basketball for the Bruins at UCLA, where his father taught physical education. To pay his way, Miller moved furniture during his senior year. One day, while working a furniture job on Sunset Boulevard, he was spotted by an agent. The agent signed Miller to a contract with MGM, and Miller's first screen test was directed by no less than Hollywood giant George Cukor. Miller's first role was in 1958's "Some Came Running." After that, he was cast as the first blond Tarzan in the low-budget film "Tarzan, the Ape Man" (1959). The movie was cheap to make, as most of its footage was taken from an earlier film. Under his 20-month contract, Miller did guest spots on a variety of television shows produced by MGM, including "Wagon Train" (NBC/ABC 1957-1965), on which he became a series regular. Miller continued his career as a guest actor on successful shows, and made dozens of appearances, including episodes of "M*A*S*H" (CBS 1972-1983), "The Rockford Files" (NBC 1974-1980), "Charlie's Angels" (ABC 1976-1981), "Dallas" (CBS 1978-1991) and "Magnum, P.I." (CBS 1980-88). Despite his ubiquity on series television during this era, perhaps his best known came as The Gorton's Fisherman, appearing for years in commercials for the frozen food manufacturer. Later in his life, Miller wrote an autobiography about his career as a character actor, called Didn't You Used to Be What's His Name? Denny Miller died September 9, 2014 in his adopted home of Las Vegas.