- published: 30 Nov 2012
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William Gargan, was an American motion picture, television and radio actor. He was born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died aged 73 on February 17, 1979, on a flight between New York and San Diego.
Gargan played character roles in many Hollywood productions, including two appearances as detective Ellery Queen, but was best known for his role as Detective Martin Kane in the 1949-51 radio-television series, Martin Kane, Private Eye, sponsored by U.S. Tobacco. He also appeared as a private detective in the NBC radio show Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, which ran from 1951 to 1955.
On leaving school, Gargan became a salesman of bootleg whiskey to New York speakeasies and then joined a detective agency. While visiting his brother on a musical comedy stage, he was offered a stage job which he accepted. He began his stage career in Aloma of the South Seas and later his film career in Misleading Lady.
He was cast in a number of stereotypical Irish parts in films playing policemen, priests, reporters, and blustering adventurers.
RAIN (1932) Joan Crawford - Walter Houston - William Gargan
Martin Kane Private Eye - Murder on Ice (1951)
1952 MARTIN KANE, PRIVATE EYE - "Who Killed the Old Major?" - William Gargan
Behind Green Lights (1946) Carole Landis William Gargan Vintage classic mystery
Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn. Drama
1941 Cheers for Miss Bishop
1949: William H. Pine - Dynamite (William Gargan, Virginia Welles)
Old Gold Comedy Theater - The Magnificent Dope with William Gargan, Janet Blair & Tom Drake
Rain (1932) - Fred Howard, Ben Hendricks Jr. & William Gargan
Family Theater - No Night Too Dark with Walter Brennan, William Gargan & Beulah Bondi
Martin Kane, Private Eye: The District Attorney Killer
Destination Unknown - 1941 - William Gargan, Irene Hervey,