Jan Merlin

Jan Merlin was born on Apr 03, 1925 in USA. Jan Merlin's big-screen debut came with Them! directed by Gordon Douglas in 1954, strarring Radio Man on the SS Viking (uncredited). Jan Merlin is known for Take the Money and Run directed by Woody Allen, Woody Allen stars as Virgil Starkwell and Janet Margolin as Louise. Jan Merlin has got 1 awards and 1 nominations so far. The most recent award Jan Merlin achieved is Daytime Emmy Awards. The upcoming new movie Jan Merlin plays is A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood Story which will be released on Nov 16, 1992.

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 La police était au rendez-vous (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. In 1958, he switched to a rare leading role, as one of the trilogy of stars in The Rough Riders (1958), a Western about three tough Civil War veterans. Merlin continued to act in occasional roles following his most prolific period of the Fifties and Sixties. In addition, in later years, as a sideline, he took work as official in the security department at a Los Angeles area airport.