George Maharis, an actor with rugged good looks who cruised the country in a Corvette convertible in the hit early 1960s TV series “Route 66,” died May 24 at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 94.
On “Route 66,” Mr. Maharis played Buz Murdock, a hardened survivor of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. His co-star Martin Milner, who died in 2015, was Tod Stiles, a young man raised in wealth who upon his father’s death was left with nothing but a shiny new Corvette. Each week brought a new adventure in a new city.
“Route 66” was the rare series at the time that was filmed on location, moving to new towns and cities for each new episode. It featured as guests many future stars, including Robert Redford, James Caan, Robert Duvall and Alan Alda in some of their earliest roles.
“Route 66” spawned its own hit song, an instrumental composed by Nelson Riddle. The more familiar tune, “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” was not connected to the series.
Mr. Maharis left the show after the third season, reputedly amid rumors of ill health and a contract dispute, but his biographer, Karen Blocher, said it was because the producers found out that he was gay and wanted him off the show after promoting his virile image.
He was replaced by Glenn Corbett, but the show lasted only one season more.
Mr. Maharis, one of seven children born to Greek immigrants, was born on Sept, 1, 1928, and grew up in Queens. His parents ran a restaurant and wanted George to join the family business.
“Growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, at least for me, was all about ‘I’m not gonna stay here,’” he said in a 2007 interview. “Life is all about the journey, the going. I had to get out.”
He hoped to be a singer but damaged his vocal cords, so he switched to acting. After training under Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner at the Actors Studio, he began appearing in off-Broadway plays.
He received warm reviews for his work in Edward Albee’s play “Zoo Story.” After a small role in the 1960 film “Exodus” and a few other parts, he landed “Route 66.”
After leaving the series, he had leading roles in films of the mid- and late 1960s such as “The Satan Bug,” “Sylvia,” “A Covenant with Death,” “The Happening” and “The Desperadoes.”
In 1970, he returned to weekly television, playing a criminologist in “The Most Deadly Game,” but the show lasted only one season. He posed nude for Playgirl magazine in 1973.
Mr. Maharis kept acting in the ensuing decades, appearing in such TV movies as “Escape to Mindanao,” “Murder on Flight 502,” “Disaster in the Sky,” “Crash of Flight 401” and “Death in Space” and on TV series including “Fantasy Island,” “The Bionic Woman” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
