Jan Merlin

Interviewed in Tom Weaver's books "Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers" (McFarland & Co., 2005), "I Talked with a Zombie" (McFarland & Co., 2008) and "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland & Co., 2010).

He won an Emmy as a writer for Another World (1964) (TV daytime series) in 1975, and was nominated again in 1979.

First stage role in Hollywood was with Barbara Britton and Carleton Young in the three-character mystery play "The Woman with Red Hair." His second was in the premiere of "Kataki" in 1960.

American character actor specializing in villainous types, much in television. A native of New York City, Merlin studied at P. S. 15, Mangin Junior High School, Grace Church Choir School for Boys, and Stuyvesant High School. During the Second World War, he served as a torpedoman in the U. S. Navy in both Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. Upon return to civilian life, he entered the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, became active in summer stock theatres and on Broadway, which brought him to Hollywood in 1954 for his first film Six Bridges to Cross (1955) (though Merlin had appeared in earlier television programs in New York, including a regular role on the children's program Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950). Merlin made a number of film appearances, primarily as a heavy. But his most frequent work was in television, where he played the near-psychotic bad guy to perfection in scores of shows, Westerns in particular.