JOHN GAVIN

(8 April 1931 - 9 February 2018)

The American actor John Gavin, who has died aged 86, was born Juan Vincent Apablasa, a fifth-generation Angeleno of Mexican, Chilean and Spanish descent. Having served in the US Navy, he was discovered by Universal Studios and given a contract as he was a handsome hunk who resembled one of their other stars and so could be promoted as the next Rock Hudson. Gavin’s first films were B-pictures, Raw Edge and Behind the High Wall (both 1956), followed by Four Girls in Town and Quantez. He then appeared in A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Golden Globe award, 1958), which was directed by Douglas Sirk, who then gave Gavin his first lead role in Imitation of Life (1959), with Lana Turner. He never quite made it into the Rock Hudson league but was usefully employed as a supporting player in many films, including Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) playing Janet Leigh’s lover, Kubrick’s Spartacus, Midnight Lace with Doris Day, A Breath of Scandal with Sophia Loren, Romanoff and Juliet and Tammy Tell Me True, both with Sandra Dee, and with Susan Hayward in Back Street. After that, television occupied Gavin (Destry, Convoy, etc) until he worked on Thoroughly Modern Millie with Julie Andrews and The Madwoman of Chaillot with Katharine Hepburn. He was all set to play James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) but Sean Connery decided to return to the part. Instead, Gavin made some more minor films and TV appearances and his last screen work was on the Hart to Hart and Fantasy Island series in 1981. He had done some theatre work including Seesaw and a tour of The Fantasticks, and was heading for Broadway in a revival of Cole Porter’s Can-Can when President Reagan asked him to be the ambassador to Mexico, a job that Gavin had always wanted. He held the post from 1980 to 1986, after which he became a successful businessman chairing many company boards and was CEO for The Century Council, a non-profit organisation fighting alcoholism. John Gavin was married twice, first to Cecily Evans, with whom he had two children, and then the actress Constance Towers from 1974 until his death.

MICHAEL DARVELL