Hollywood Hearthrob George Maharis is dead to me aged 94!

The obit doesn't mention that he was a homosexualist. I think he got into trouble with Lily Law once or twice.

At 94 something's gotta give.

RIP

Easy on the eyes, rock hard on the dick…

He was quite a fixture at the baths in LA.

There was always something depressing and depraved about him.

Back in the early 80s on Cable, I was first introduced to "Route 66." I immediately fell into lust with George Maharis!

R.I.P.

R6, why depraved?

R6 = Sexual suppressive

I will be watching the episode of Murder, She Wrote he appeared in tonight. It’s the one with Brenda Vaccaro titled Fixer Upper. Season 6, episode 15.

DEAR GOD, WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND TAKE SUCH DECREPIT SNATCH??

R5 is that from his Playgirl spread.

He had a hot ass, but he couldn't live forever!

A bunch of DLers have had stories about hooking up with him back in the day

So young.

Was his "caregiver" his bf?:

Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Just recently, I posted R2’s Hullabaloo link in a preexisting Maharis thread. I hope I didn’t jinx him.

His last acting credit was 30 years ago. I wouldn’t think he did so well in his acting career to comfortably retire at the age of 64.

[quote] I hope I didn’t jinx him.

Well you did, R19. You did jinx him. Murderer.

Maharis' penis was intact. Unfortunately, his foreskin was retracted in that Playgirl photo.

Damn, he was handsome.

RIP

"I wouldn’t think he did so well in his acting career to comfortably retire at the age of 64."

Years ago a DLer claimed that he had a rich bf who left him a lot of money

Was he an organ donor?

Noted bathroom cruiser

Look at Donna McKechnie and her big ginger hair in that Hullabaloo video!

Oh please, who hasn't cruised in a bathroom?!

R27, I would never do that.

Beautiful man. He will be missed.

Brought a lot of pleasure to many, many men over the years

Something very Eric McCormack-looking about him.

Eldergays: Does the name Perfecto Telles ring a bell?

If you didn't get a rise out of either of the two stars of "Route 66," you weren't really gay.

Happy 92nd birthday Carroll Baker & RIP George Maharis at 94. In 1965, they starred in "Sylvia," a high-camp classic with Baker as a poet with a prostitute past & Maharis as the private eye who falls in love with her before even meeting her! The stars look great & a cast of veterans make this great fun.

I watched episodes of Route 66 on MeTV some years back, and preferred Martin Milner, the blond, to either of his dark-haired co-stars.

I always confused him with George Chakiris from West Side Story.

Being 17 and full of hormones when Route 66 started. He definitely had my pecker at full salute

David Ehrenstein chimes in.

Singer, Actor, Artist... and he must have been a top to survive the AIDS era.

[quote] David Ehrenstein chimes in.

Why are straight me so stupid?

Why did he not die from the AIDS? Everyone else in R36 did and he seems to have been quite slutty….

Glad Playgirl got at least some nudity out of him. Beautiful man. Spending an hour having sex with that would’ve been sublime. Rest in peace.

[quote]Why did he not die from the AIDS? Everyone else in [R36] did and he seems to have been quite slutty….

Tab Hunter didn't.

...nor did Farley Granger or Richard Chamberlain...

Condoms! R39 Condoms!

[quote] Condoms! [R39] Condoms!

The first reports of what would become known as AIDS didn't surface until 1981. So many gay men were likely infected in the '70s & very early '80s, well before the need for condoms became apparent.

Don’t try to educate these idiots who rant and rave about their ‘insights’ regarding the early years of HIV…A horde of anti-sex pests around these parts.

Anti-sex pests really are the WORST

[quote]Spending an hour having sex with that would’ve been sublime.

If he kept his mouth shut. Maharis was an insufferable asshole.

[quote]If you didn't get a rise out of either of the two stars of "Route 66," you weren't really gay.

What am I -- chopped liver?

I feel bad that I'd never heard of him before. Incredibly dashing in his younger days! And a pioneer in cottaging, apparently.

He had even more recent acting credits than me!

r48 Forgot all about Mr. Corbett, thanks for posting that pic. I'd put him on a par with Gary Lockwood.

I wonder who Joan preferred?

[quote]I wonder who Joan preferred?

There were no women regulars on that show.

Uh-oh.

IIRC he didn't appear 'full frontal' in PLAYGIRL - he always had his dick covered up somehow.

I never got the love for Martin Milner. He was handsome, but so boring as a performer and so unsexy.

Maharis made more sense as a heartthrob because he was not just handsome but genuinely sexy and surprising.

R54 his Playgirl pics, while not as graphic as we would’ve liked, were still stunning. One of them, he shows side ass, and you can see his cock peeking out. He looked rather big. To think he was 44 doing these pics, and he still looked good enough to eat.

^^Mary!

R11 What cable channel runs "Murder She Wrote?"

He sang live during the hullabaloo clip!

Knew George when he lived on West 49th. Yes, I'm an ElderGay. Rotated four toupees to make it look like his hair was growing over a month.

As a kid I always thought (hoped?) that the two guys on Route 66 were "a couple"... the dark hair/blond hair guys seemed a good pairing. I think, somewhere in the mysterious recesses of my developing sexuality, I thought Milner was the "top", though I had no clue what that actually meant.

I just checked a site that had pictures of Maharis and it had, mixed in, George Chakiris. A George is a george is a george I guess.

r48 - We had (big) faces then.

R59: “ He sang live during the hullabaloo clip!”

We didn’t know any better back then.

It's kind of sad that I saw no mention of this on the news.

Used to fantasize about him and Martin Milner getting it on while watching Route 66

They should have called it Route 69

He was arrested in 1974 for having sex in a gas station bathroom with a hairdresser named Perfecto Telles, a year before his Playgirl pictorial.

He probably did the Playgirl spread to pay his legal bills.

It was also revealed that he had had a prior arrest for bathroom cruising in the 60s but the arrest was hushed up at the time

Now this is a real head shot.

Arrested Development went deep with George Maharis.

Barefoot in the Park

I was also surprised his death wasn’t more publicized.

A female friend of mine had crushes on George Maharis AND Richard Chamberlain when she was growing up in the 60s

R36 and R38, don't say DE's name anymore. If you say it a third time, you may conjure him back from the dead!

R66 he did Playgirl before the bathroom incident.

First Rick Dalton, now his rival George Maharis

R74 Yes, and Playgirls negotiations and shoots always took a hot minute. It could have gone from initial outreach to publication in 60 days.

R72 tell me your “female friend” is just another gay guy you know, without telling me…etc.

[quote]It's kind of sad that I saw no mention of this on the news.

He was upstaged by Tina. And, really, he was just a TV actor in a series for a brief time.

The idiocy on the part of some of you posters is amazing.

A sizeable majority of gay guys who survived the AIDS plague were "oral only", both giving and getting. This includes me. The number of cases of orally-transmitted AIDS was, while not impossible (i.e. open sores in mouth when giving) miniscule.

“The number of cases of orally-transmitted AIDS was, while not impossible (i.e. open sores in mouth when giving) miniscule.”

Zip, zero, nada.

R60 give credit where it’s due: he knew his audience!

[quote]David Ehrenstein chimes in.

I knew Ehrenstein's comments would be worthless when he included Liberace as one of five gay men who had risen "to the very top of the acting profession."

Liberace was no George Arliss and Dorothy Malone was no Bette Davis.

Sincerely Yours was almost as good as Lance Bass's magnum opus On the Line

Good to know that George Maharis was Oral Only.

Isn’t there pics of him presenting hole?

Supposedly he loved giving and getting head

Supposed? I suppose there’s some unicorn or incel gay that never sucked or got sucked, but I’ve never met him.

It takes practice, but you’ll learn 🍆

Lots of people in the Deadline comments section who proclaimed to know him all say lovely things about him:

I saw George Maharis play Bobby in "Company" at the North Shore Music Theatre in Massachusetts in the early '70s. He wasn't bad. In the "Barcelona" scene, he wore white jockey shorts that revealed a quite generous package. Unless it was rolled-up socks or something.

I am going to watch Sylvia tonight!

Sylvia is a camp hoot

Handsome man, beautiful.

RIP

Only 94? So young...

Why did he exit Route 66?

New York Times obit is up

Has Faye Dunaway, his costar in The Happening, commented yet?

Which means OP was petting her fanny to him in 1960-64. The old scouser is as antediluvian as we assumed.

R96 The elder gays here will confirm that the white jeans, high water hem, black boots.... was totally gay, street hustler version.

[quote]Why did he exit Route 66?

Supposedly because he had contacted hepatitis, which forced him to miss some episodes in his final season. But the real reason was most likely that he thought he had a big future in movies and wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Glen Corbett was hired as his replacement, but the show lasted only one more season without Maharis.

^^ Sorry. Glenn Corbett. ^^

^^^I thought it was Gretchen Corbett.

He did several different episodes of Fantasy Island

Mission:Impossible

Okay someone spill hookup stories or are all you old marys dead too?

He was so beautiful. I’m glad to hear that he shared his beauty with other lucky men.

R105 There's a marker of the passage of time, eh? On a gay gossip board no one is old enough to have hooked up with the fallen 94 year old pretty boy.

A fine piece of romping meat, according to two old acquaintances (not at same time), both now deceased, and DL lore.

His numbers might rival Wilt Chamberlain's

This old thread has some dirt on his hookups

Another old thread

Interview he did when Route 66 came out on DVD

For those of you who slept with him, did George keep his wig on all night?

Get your kicks...

What a heartbreaker to learn the love of our teenage dreams was gay. As they say what a waste. The gay lifestyle is accepted now but was not then. Perhaps that is why George became a recluse after the bathroom incident years ago? He was a living doll and regardless we fans still love him and always will.

The night I unsuccessfully tried to convince young George to play for a different team in the brdroom, he impulsively snatched my wig and I felt had no choice but to snatch his.

[quote]Perhaps that is why George became a recluse after the bathroom incident years ago?

R114. George continued to work throughout the 1970s, so he wasn't a recluse.

I'm so gay my first thought was, "Well, one more guest of 'The Judy Garland Show' is gone!".

Other than her children, this leaves Barbra, Chita Rivera and Bob Newhart!

Anyone else?

Apparently the producers of Route 66 were NOT happy with him being gay and had to cover up some of his "adventures":

The Herbert B Leonard version of the story was very different, but just as bitter and just as vehement. Leonard was the show's executive producer. He thought he'd hired a young hunk for the show, a hip, sexy man and good actor that all the girls would go for. This was all true of Maharis, but not the whole story, as Leonard discovered to his anger and dismay. George was gay, it turned out. Leonard told us that they sometimes had trouble keeping Maharis's sexual activities from the press. Meanwhile, according to Leonard, Maharis decided he was too big a star for tv, and to use illness as a pretext to break his contract and go make movies. Writer-producer Stirling Silliphant pretty much agreed with this assessment, as did the show's other star, Martin Milner, when I finally asked him about it in a follow-up letter. (Milner actually said very little in his low-key response. I think it was about one sentence in his one-page letter back to me.)

Sounds like Martin just wanted to mind his own business.

[quote]I'm so gay my first thought was, "Well, one more guest of 'The Judy Garland Show' is gone!". Other than her children, this leaves Barbra, Chita Rivera and Bob Newhart! Anyone else?

The Smothers Brothers, Jack Jones and Rich Little are still alive.

[quote]—When was the last time you thought of Gretchen Corbett?

I thought of Gretchen Wyler recently.

I think of my governor, Gretchen Whitmer, quite often.

I just thought of Gretchen Wyler. Weird.

The explanation at r118 is what I've always thought was the reason for Maharis' disappearance from the second season of Route 66. The producers knew they couldn't control him and greatly feared he would expose himself in increasingly worrisome gay situations and George didn't care and left himself vulnerable, thinking he would have a big career in film or theatre, anyway, and wanted out of the series. Hepatitis had nothing to do with it.

As a young kid back then I was totally satisfied with Glenn Corbett as George's replacement as I thought in my little gayling groin he was so much hotter. But I now can see how unique and special George was on the series, not generically handsome like Glenn, a presence almost verging on the Beat generation vibe of Jack Kerouac and a much stronger contrast to the All-American Marty Milner.

[quote]The night I unsuccessfully tried to convince young George to play for a different team in the brdroom, he impulsively snatched my wig and I felt had no choice but to snatch his.

He may have snatched your wig, Helen, but at least your snatch was still wigged.

He was the long time lover of Shoche Marin.

R126 Who?

How young you must be, R127, to ask who Shoche Marin was!

R128 So you don't know either?

Not a clue, either. R129.

It's SCOCHE, not SHOCHE, and it's the figment of some delusional Y&R fan's imagination. Do a search and you'll find dozens of references to this non-existent person in the Y&R threads.

Somehow I thought The Smothers Brothers were both dead!

I think I got them confused with Rowan and Martin.

George Maharis was a closeted, gay man his whole life.

It's sad. It speaks to the times into which he was born, grew up, and had a career as an actor.

Just read this from his obit in the NYT:

[quote]His longtime friend and caretaker, Marc Bahan, confirmed the death.

[quote]He did not discuss his sexuality in interviews

He was let go from Route 66 because he was gay.

At the end of his life, he wanted his next of kin/survivor to be described as his "longtime friend and caretaker."

Sad.

Yeah, everyone deserves privacy, but I read his life as affected by homophobia from society and internalized.

Sad.

The world knew he was gay no closet…or no water closet

[quote]At the end of his life, he wanted his next of kin/survivor to be described as his "longtime friend and caretaker."

Obviously that wasn't his "next of kin", r133, and how do you know it *wasn't* a longtime friend and caretaker?

He was his life partner. They both used to work out at the Sports Connection in the 90's and George would come get him from our aerobic classes all the time. They had a circle of gay friends and were out for all intents and purposes. But these old gay guys just couldn't overcome their own homophobia sometimes.

were out for all intents and purposes. But these old gay guys just couldn't overcome their own homophobia sometimes.

So they WERE out, you just chose not to recognize that fact. Got it.

[quote]Why did he not die from the AIDS? Everyone else in [[R36]] did and he seems to have been quite slutty….

He was a top, Rose.

R 137 No, stupid, the homophobia is about not calling his partner a life partner.

Teen magazine cover

No, that’s standard NYT obituary writing for describing the source of death info who was not married to the deceased.

I prefer the "NEW" Annette, r140.

[quote]Somehow I thought The Smothers Brothers were both dead! I think I got them confused with Rowan and Martin.

Rowan and Martin have been really most sincerely dead for years. Rowan in 1987, Martin in 2008.

I feel I owe Stockard Channing an apology: Annette Funicello is 19 on that "Screen Album" cover and could easily pass for one of the 30-something members of the "Grease" cast...

[quote] No, that’s standard NYT obituary writing for describing the source of death info who was not married to the deceased.

Maybe in 1975 but not today.

That's just really going to bother you, isn't it, r145?

Like something out of "Longtime Companion"

Go pick 10 random obits from the last month in the NYT, and get back to us about the person referenced as confirming the subject’s death…

R120, Steve Lawrence is still alive.

Just a gorgeous man.

You could say that, r150.

Barely, R149. It’s been several years now since it was announced Steve Lawrence was retiring due to Alzheimer’s.

On Password in the early 60s

On the Pyramid with a young Jamie Lee Curtis in the 70s

^ I didn’t know that George was doing soaps back then.

Apparently Maharis was on Search for Tomorrow for a few months in 1960 before landing Route 66.

Weird the YouTube poster above credited him on being on Search rather than Route 66, which is the show that made him famous.

That's all ya got, R60?

That wig at R154! George was completely bald when I saw him 30 years ago.

His 'caregiver' boyfriend expects to get all of Maharis' money. Oh yes, for his ummmm care giving.

That hair in the Pyramid Clip! Purchased at Sears and Roebuck! But he was a pretty man.

Sad to say but his insane wigs and refusal to come out publicly say everything about George. He was really in denial.

George was big in the cottaging community.

I'm still big, it's the cottaging community that got small!

he and Burt Reyolds were close in age, and had a similar tortured toupe history,

any DLer with some extra time on their hands, a visual conpare and contrast essay between Burt and George's rugs would be appreciated!!!!

I think But wins..

R164 I recall Burt Reynolds was pissed off that George decided to do a nude spread after Burt did and decided to one-up Burt by showing his cock.

Burt commented that George had a lot of confidence posing next to a horse.

[quote] I recall Burt Reynolds was pissed off that George decided to do a nude spread after Burt did and decided to one-up Burt by showing his cock.

Burt showed his cock. They just didn't print that photo in the magazine.

R167, I didn’t feel a thing.

Neither did I.

Nor me!!!

Ditto.

I did

Me too

Burt felt a thing when I pegged him!

A Reader Blind Item put up by Entertainment Lawyer June 23, obviously George. I wonder who the guys he had trysts with were?

[quote] This recently deceased retired long lived actor was in a popular TV show many, many years ago. Behind the scenes, he constantly argued with the people in charge about every aspect of the show from the scripts to the set to the direction. The network was also ambivalent about the star due to his homosexuality which he refused to hide, rejecting a sham marriage for appearance’s sake. At the height of the show’s success, he quit citing his health but then discovered he had been blacklisted by the network and could not get work anywhere. Knowing that one of the most powerful men in Hollywood had a gay son and that one of the most powerful producers was himself in fact gay, he arranged trysts with both men and used hidden cameras to document their time together. He then used the threat of this to get his career back on track appearing in movies, TV, and in plays although he was never as big as when he was on the TV show.

R175 George, you cunning little cunt!

You go, George!

He's gone, R177.

Release the 8mm !!