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{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Refimprove|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Al Gordon and Denny Miller (2007).jpg  |
| imagesize = 150px |
| name = Denny Miller
| birthname = Dennis Linn Miller
| birth_date = {{birth date|1934|4|25}}
| birth_place = [[Bloomington, Indiana]], U.S.
| caption = Denny Miller (right) with a fan at the Super-Con convention.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2014|9|9|1934|4|25}}
| death_place = [[Las Vegas, Nevada]], U.S.
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1958–2014
| spouse = Kit Smythe (divorced)<br>Nancy Miller (at time of his death)
}}

'''Denny Scott Miller''' (born '''Dennis Linn Miller'''; April 25, 1934 – September 9, 2014) was an [[United States|American]] [[actor]], perhaps best known for his regular role as Duke Shannon on ''[[Wagon Train]]'', his guest-starring appearances on ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'', and his 1959 [[film]] role as [[Tarzan]].

==Background==
Miller was a [[basketball]] player for the [[UCLA Bruins]] at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]], where his father was a [[physical education]] instructor. In his senior year, while he was working as a furniture mover to pay for school, Miller was discovered on [[Sunset Boulevard]] by a [[Hollywood]] agent who signed him with [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. His screen test was directed by [[George Cukor]].<ref name=cukor>{{cite web|first=Marcel|last=Damen|url=http://www.galactica.tv/battlestar-galactica-1978-interviews/denny-miller-galactica.tv-interview.html|title=Denny Miller interview|publisher=GALACTICA.TV|date=February 21, 2007|accessdate=October 2, 2014}}</ref>

He became the first blond Tarzan in ''[[Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959 film)|Tarzan, the Ape Man]]'' (1959), a cheapie/quickie which lifted most of its footage from earlier [[Johnny Weissmuller]] movies. Miller had been recommended by someone else considered for the role, [[William Smith (actor)|William Smith]], later a star of the [[NBC]] ''[[Laredo (TV series)|Laredo]]'' [[Western (genre)|western]] series.<ref name=cukor/> MGM had Miller under contract for twenty months; in that time, he worked only eight weeks as Tarzan.

==Acting career==
After that, Miller did guest spots on a number of [[television series]], such as ''[[Northwest Passage (TV series)|Northwest Passage]]'' and ''[[Overland Trail (TV series)|Overland Trail]]''.

In 1960, the 26-year-old Miller appeared as Wilkie, the son of a powerful rancher, in the "License to Kill" episode of ''[[Laramie (TV series)|Laramie]]'', starring [[John Smith (actor)|John Smith]] and [[Robert Fuller (actor)|Robert Fuller]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0624737/|title=''Laramie'': "License to Kill", November 22, 1960|publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]|accessdate=October 17, 2012}}</ref> He also appeared on ''[[Have Gun, Will Travel]]'' and an episode of ''[[The Rifleman]]'' as a dimwitted gunfighter named Reuben Miles.
[[File:Wagon Train cast 1962.jpg|thumb|''Wagon Train'' cast, 1962; Miller is at lower left]]
From 1961 to 1964, Miller was a regular on ''Wagon Train'' in the role of the [[Reconnaissance|scout]], Duke Shannon. His co-stars in addition to Robert Fuller were [[John McIntire]], [[Robert Horton (actor)|Robert Horton]], [[Frank McGrath (actor)|Frank McGrath]], [[Terry Wilson (actor)|Terry Wilson]], and [[Michael Burns (historian)|Michael Burns]].

After the cancellation of ''Wagon Train'' in 1965, Miller starred as Mike McCluskey, the military-officer husband of [[Juliet Prowse]] on the NBC sitcom ''[[Mona McCluskey]]''. In the story line, Mike insists that Mona live on his salary, rather than hers as an actress. About this time, Miller also guest starred on [[CBS]]'s ''[[Gunsmoke]]'', [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[The Fugitive (TV series)|The Fugitive]]'', and NBC's ''[[The High Chaparral]]''.

Miller guest-starred twice on CBS's ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'': in 1964 as lost [[surfing|surfer]] Duke Williams in the episode "Big Man on Little Stick", and in 1967 as a [[method acting|method actor]] playing Tongo the Ape Man in the episode "Our Vines Have Tender Apes". In 1970 he was "Moose" on [[Barbara Eden]]'s ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]'' (Episode #135 "Eternally Yours, Jeannie"). He appeared on ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' in 1973 as Carol Brady's egomaniacal high-school boyfriend Tank Gates in "Quarterback Sneak". In episode 1.2 of ''[[Alice (TV series)|Alice]]'', "Alice Gets a Pass", he played a gay football player.

He portrayed John Hays on CBS's ''[[Hawaii Five-O]]'' in the 1968 episode "Pray Love Remember, Pray Love Remember", as a man falsely accused of [[murder]]. He also appeared as a logging camp foreman involved in a plot to bring down a passing Presidential plane in a 1975 episode of ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' entitled "Target in the Sky." In 1976, Miller played a murderer on [[Jack Klugman]]'s ''[[Quincy M.E.]]''. In 1978, he appeared in the ''[[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' episode "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". Miller appeared in the "Circus of Terror" episode of the second season of "Charlie's Angels" as Helmut Klaus, a European knife-thrower hiding out in the circus until he can obtain political asylum. He also appeared on ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'' in the episode "The Dorian Secret".

Miller subsequently appeared as an alien invader in the [[miniseries]] ''[[V (1983 miniseries)|V]]''. He was cast in a 1983 ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'' episode "A Sense of Debt" as Leon Platt, a bare-knuckles fighter.
Miller appeared in more than two hundred television episodes. For fourteen years, he played the [[Gorton's of Gloucester|Gorton's Fisherman]] in TV commercials.

His film career included roles in ''[[Love in a Goldfish Bowl]]'' (1961), and the part of "Wyoming" Bill Kelso in ''[[The Party (film)|The Party]]'' (1968), which he remembers as the part he most enjoyed. His other film credits included ''[[Making It (film)|Making It]]'' (1971), ''[[Doomsday Machine (film)|Doomsday Machine]]'' (1972), ''[[Buck and the Preacher]]'' (1972), ''[[The Gravy Train]]'' (1974), ''[[The Island at the Top of the World]]'' (1974), ''[[The Norseman]]'' (1978), ''[[Caboblanco]]'' (1980) and ''[[Circle of Power]]'' (1981).

==Later years==
Denny Miller wrote an [[autobiography]] titled ''Didn't You Used To Be...What's His Name?'' and a book about [[obesity]] in the United States called ''Toxic Waist?...Get To Know Sweat!''.

Miller lived with his second wife, Nancy, in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]], [[Nevada]], and taught classes in relaxation.

==Death==
Miller was diagnosed with [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] in January 2014. He died in Las Vegas on September 9, 2014, at the age of 80.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/denny-miller-dead-tarzan-wagon-732535|title=Denny Miller, Star of 'Tarzan' and 'Wagon Train,' Dies at 80|work=The Hollywood Reporter|accessdate=September 12, 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Mike Henry (football)|Mike Henry]]
*[[Buster Crabbe]]
*[[Lex Barker]]
*[[Ron Ely]]

{{Portal|Biography|Indiana|Los Angeles|California|Las Vegas|Nevada|Television|Film}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=0588225|name=Denny Miller}}
* [http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/dennymiller.html Entry for Denny Miller] at [http://www.briansdriveintheater.com Brian's Drive-In Theater]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140327143457/http://www.denny-miller.com/ Official Denny Miller Website]
* [http://www.erbzine.com/denny/ Erbzine]

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{{succession box | before = [[Gordon Scott]] | title = Actors to portray [[Tarzan]] | years = 1959 | after = [[Jock Mahoney]]}}
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Noboru Ando (1926-2015)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Denny}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bloomington, Indiana]]
[[Category:Male actors from Indiana]]
[[Category:American male film actors]]
[[Category:American male television actors]]
[[Category:Male actors from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:People from the Las Vegas Valley]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:UCLA Bruins men's basketball players]]
[[Category:Writers from Indiana]]
[[Category:Deaths from motor neurone disease]]
[[Category:American autobiographers]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Western (genre) television actors]]

Denny Miller - Revision history

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