Jan Merlin
| Jan Merlin | |
|---|---|
Jan Merlin in 2013
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| Born |
Jan Wasylewski April 3, 1925 New York City, New York, USA |
| Occupation | Actor, author |
| Years active | 1946–present |
| Spouse(s) | Patricia Ann Datz (married 1951–1986, her death); Barbara Doyle (married 1988–present) |
| Awards | Golden Halo Award, 2009 (from Southern California Motion Picture Council) |
Jan Merlin (born April 3, 1925) is an American character actor, screenwriter, and author.
Born and reared in New York City USA, Merlin is of Ukrainian ancestry. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy and became a torpedoman. He served on three successive ships in the North Atlantic and Pacific fleets and accumulated ten battle stars, before he entered Japan's Inland Sea with the first group of occupation forces following Japan's surrender. After his discharge, he worked in beginning in 1946, and then enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, making his Broadway debut in 1949 in Mister Roberts starring Henry Fonda.
His professional acting career, which spans more than five decades, has included performances in stage plays on and off Broadway, radio dramas, live and filmed episodes of television series, and more than 30 feature motion pictures. His most recent performances were in live radio dramas broadcast in June 2010. In his film and television work, Merlin was frequently cast as the heavy, and consequently his character very often died onscreen. In 1960, Merlin played Travers in Hell Bent for Leather, and his other film credits include roles in Guns of Diablo (1965), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Take the Money and Run (1969), The Twilight People (1972), I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973), The Slams (1973), The Hindenburg (1975) and Time Trackers (1989).
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