Trivia

Was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of the superhero Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (created in 1968). Milner was 37 years old at the point.

His role as veteran patrol officer Pete Malloy in Adam-12 (1968) inspired generations of kids to become cops. He got letters from policemen thanking him for "Adam-12". On Sept. 7, 2015, Los Angeles Chief of Police Charlie Beck said that the show and Milner "embodied the spirit of the LAPD to millions of viewers. His depiction of a professional and tough yet compassionate cop led to thousands of men and women applying to become LAPD officers, including me." [2015/09/07].

Died peacefully on a Sunday night at his home in Carlsbad, CA, surrounded by his family.

Married singer and actress Judith Bess Jones on February 23, 1957. They had four children together: two daughters, Amy and Molly; and two sons, Stuart and Andrew. Amy, the eldest daughter, died of acute myeloid leukemia in 2004.

According to ex-Adam-12 (1968) co-star, Kent McCord, he said Milner was a strict performer, who drank just a little, who never drank during working hours, except for the 1 night while shooting. They were shooting a scene that winter, since it was so cold, Milner needed to have a shot of brandy to stay warm and the two didn't have a lot of dialogue to do, so, they got into the interior of the car, later, where he snuggled in and he had fallen asleep.

His forthright manner and wholesome looks made him a popular choice to play cops, military officers and other authority figures.

Milner and Adam-12 (1968) co-star Kent McCord were reunited in a Nashville Beat (1989) on the Nashville Network. McCord played an L.A. cop visiting his friend Milner, an ex-L.A. cop who became a Nashville cop.

According to his audio commentary on a La quatrième dimension (1959) DVD, he initially turned down Adam-12 (1968) to appear in a play he thought would be more successful, but the play flopped.

His passions were "family and fishing, in that order" as he told People Magazine during an interview in 1995.

Two television shows in which he starred and for which he is probably most famous, Route 66 (1960) and Adam-12 (1968), are both renowned for filming primarily on location as opposed to on a Hollywood sound stage.

Owned an avocado farm.

Milner, at age 28, shot to fame in 1960 with co-star George Maharis in the iconic TV drama Route 66 (1960), which found two restless young men roaming the highway author John Steinbeck had dubbed "The Mother Road" in a red Corvette convertible. Milner was "Tod Stiles," a young man born to wealth but suddenly broke when his father died and left him nothing but the new Corvette. Maharis was "Buzz Murdock," a hardened survivor of New York City's Hell's Kitchen. Together they toured the country in Tod's new Corvette, meeting all kinds of people and becoming involved with their lives. The series was said to have been inspired by Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road" and it featured such actors--early in their careers--as Robert Redford, Alan Alda and Gene Hackman. As much a star of the show as Milner and Maharais was Route 66 itself. Although it has sine been bypassed in favor of bigger, faster interstates, the iconic highway stretched unbroken from Chicago to the Pacific Ocean during the show's heyday and was venerated as strongly contributing to the country's 20th-century westward migration. "Route 66" was the ONLY television program filmed entirely on location in the early 1960s, moving to new towns and cities for each new episode. Ironically, however, the action often took place off the highway. "The problem was that once you get into Oklahoma and Texas on the route, the scenery is flat and boring," Milner recounted in a 1997 interview. "Pictorially it just wasn't very interesting." Maharis, who became ill with hepatitis and missed part of the third season, left "Route 66" at the end of that year amid rumors of a contract dispute. Maharis was replaced by Glenn Corbett, who played a war hero trying to cope with civilian life. The magic was gone, however, and the show lasted just one more season.

His memorial service occurred six days after his passing in Oceanside, CA, with law-enforcement and community members paying tribute to him.

In 1968 he signed on to another "buddy" series, Adam-12 (1968) This time he was Officer Pete Malloy, a veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department assisted by rookie cop Jim Reed, played by Kent McCord. "I had a long, long friendship with Marty and we remained friends up 'til the end," McCord said. "He was one of the really true great people of our industry with a long, distinguished career--wonderful films, wonderful television shows, pioneering shows like Route 66 (1960). He was one of the great guys. I was lucky to have him in my life." The series was produced by Jack Webb, who applied the same realistic treatment of police procedures that he had in his "Dragnet" TV shows, in which he was Sgt. Joe Friday. During the seven-year life of "Adam 12" both Reed and Malloy won promotions. Milner had met Webb years before "Route 66" when both were appearing in Okinawa : Le Verdun du Pacifique (1951), and Webb had hired Milner for an early radio version of "Dragnet." Later Milner appeared in several episodes of Badge 714 (1951). When he was in the US Army stationed at northern California's Ford Ord, he would sometimes visit Los Angeles and look Webb up. "Even though there wasn't a part for me in 'Dragnet' that week," Milner recalled in 1989, "Jack would write one in so I could collect $125".

Has played the same character (Officer Peter Malloy) in four different series: Dragnet 1967 (1967), Adam-12 (1968), The D.A. (1971) and Emergency! (1972).

Served in the Army from 1952-54.

Family moved to Seattle where he worked as a child actor in local plays, and then moved to Los Angeles, where his movie career began in his early teens.

Father of four children: Andrew Milner, the late Amy Milner, Stuart Milner and Molly.

Top-billed in two iconic television series with numbers in their title: Route 66 (1960) and Adam-12 (1968).

His father, Sam, was a film distributor, and his mother, Mildred, known professionally as Jerre Martin, was a dancer with the Paramount Theater circuit.

Has been a co-host of "Let's Talk Hookup", a radio show for fly fishing enthusiasts, since 1993.

His remains were cremated. His ashes were given to his wife, Judith.