Former
Another World writer Jan Merlin died on September 20 in Los Angeles. He was 94.
Born on April 3, 1925, Merlin was a torpedo man aboard U.S. Navy destroyers during World War II. He studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and appeared in the ensemble in the original 1948 Broadway production of "Mister Roberts," starring Henry Fonda.
From 1950-54, Merlin starred as Roger Manning on the kids TV program
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, based on a comic strip.
He moved to Hollywood for a role in
Six Bridges to Cross (1955), starring Curtis, then appeared with Mamie Van Doren in
Running Wild (1955), with Dale Robertson in
A Day of Fury (1956), with Tom Tryon in
Screaming Eagles (1956) and with Ann Sheridan in
Woman and the Hunter (1957).
In 1958-59, Merlin portrayed Lt. Colin Kirby on
The Rough Riders, an ABC series set in the aftermath of the Civil War.
His credits also included the films
Guns of Diablo (1964),
The Oscar (1966),
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967),
Take the Money and Run (1969) and
The Hindenburg (1975) and such TV shows as
Laramie,
The Virginian,
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,
Mannix,
Mission: Impossible and
Little House on the Prairie.
Merlin also spent about five years as a writer on Harding Lemay's team at NBC soap
Another World, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1975 and receiving another nomination two years later.
Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress Anna Holbrook, and her Another World co-star, Kale Browne, guest-starred on the September 29, 2008, episode of indie radio soap opera Scripts & Scruples as Sam's parents, Maggie and Alan Zegas.
