George Maharis, TV Heartthrob of ‘Route 66,’ Is Dead at 94

May 28, 2023
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George Maharis, the ruggedly handsome New York-born stage actor who went on to become a 1960s television heartthrob as a star of the series “Route 66,” died on Wednesday at at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 94.

His friend Marc Bahan announced his death on Facebook.

Mr. Maharis’s greatest fame arose from the role of Buz Murdock, one of two young men who traveled the country in a Corvette convertible, finding a new adventure and drama (and usually a new young woman) each week on CBS’s “Route 66.”

In a 2012 reappraisal of the show, the New York Times critic and reporter Neil Genzlinger praised the literary quality of the scripts and commented, “This half-century-old black-and-white television series tackled issues that seem very 21st century.”

Source: The New York Times