Dan Rowan
Dan Rowan | |
---|---|
Birth name | Daniel Hale David |
Born | Beggs, Oklahoma, U.S. | July 22, 1922
Died | September 22, 1987 Englewood, Florida, U.S. | (aged 65)
Medium | Television, film |
Years active | 1952–1982 |
Spouse | Phyllis J. Mathis
(m. 1946; div. 1960)Adriana Van Ballegooyen
(m. 1963; div. 1971)Joanna Young (m. 1974) |
Children | 3 |
Daniel Hale Rowan (July 22, 1922 – September 22, 1987) was an American actor and comedian. He was featured in the television show
Early life and career
Rowan was born on July 22, 1922,[1] on a carnival train near the small town of Beggs, Oklahoma, as Daniel Hale David. He toured with his parents,[2] Oscar and Nellie David, who performed a singing and dancing act with the carnival.
He was orphaned at the age of 11,[2] spent four years at the McClelland Home in Pueblo, Colorado, where he was taken in by a foster family at the age of 16 and enrolled in Central High School. After graduating from high school in 1940, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles and found a job in the mailroom at Paramount Pictures, quickly ingratiating himself with studio head Buddy DeSylva. A year later he became Paramount's youngest staff writer.
World War II
During
]Comedy team
After his discharge, Rowan returned to California, where he teamed up with
In 1958, Rowan and Martin made their movie debut in the offbeat western comedy Once Upon a Horse, written and directed by
Rowan and Martin hosted a free-wheeling television comedy revue that aired during the summer of 1967. NBC accepted the Rowan and Martin show, now called Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, as a midseason replacement series, and it quickly became a national phenomenon, running through 1973.
At the height of the show's popularity, Rowan and Martin starred in the 1969 film The Maltese Bippy, which was a notorious failure.[6] Rowan also appeared twice as an actor on The Love Boat, first in a two-part 1977 episode playing the part of Alan Danver, husband of Barbara Danver, played by Juliet Mills. He appeared again as Matt Heller, a father estranged for 20 years from his ex-wife, Jenny Heller, played by Marion Ross, and his daughter, Beth Heller, played by Eve Plumb in the October 30, 1982 episode "Command Performance".
Personal life
In 1946, Rowan married the 1945 Miss America first-runner-up Phyllis J. Mathis.[7] They had three children: Thomas Patrick, Mary Ann, and Christie Esther.[7] He and Mathis were later divorced.[8] In 1963, Rowan married Australian model Adriana Van Ballegooyen.[8] They divorced[9] eight years later. In 1974, he married model and TV spokeswoman Joanna Young, to whom he remained married until his death.[1]
Later years and death
Rowan retired in the early 1980s and spent the remainder of his years between his residence in Florida and his barge in the canals of France, although he did reunite with Martin for some brief appearances on the NBC 60th Anniversary Show in 1986. In his forties, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which led to his becoming insulin dependent. He died of lymphoma in 1987 in Englewood, Florida.[1] His body was cremated.
In 1986, a book of letters written between himself and author John D. MacDonald was published titled A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D. MacDonald, 1967-1974.[9]
Rowan was portrayed by Jonathan Whittaker in the 1995 HBO movie Sugartime.[10]
References
- ^ a b c Gerard, Jeremy (September 23, 1987). "Dan Rowan, 65, a Comedian And a 'Laugh-In' Host, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
- ^ a b c "'Laugh-In' Comic Dan Rowan Dies". Los Angeles Times. United Press International. September 22, 1987. Archived from the original on May 27, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-877639-37-1.
- ISBN 978-1-5585-3980-8.
- ^ "Hollywood Squares' Peter Marshall Reveals Which Celebrity Guests Were 'Friends' and Who Was a 'Pain'". Closer. February 22, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
- ^ "The Maltese Bippy". All Movie Guide. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
- ^ a b "Welcome to the Memorial Page for Christie Esther Parker". Coos Bay Chapel. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
- ^ a b Oppenheimer, Peer J. (September 8, 1968). "Can TV's Hottest Comics Stay Friends?". Bluefield Daily Telegraph. p. 94.
Dan's first marriage to Phyllis Mathis ended in divorce.
- ^ a b Burns, Frances Ann (April 10, 1987). "The comic and the writer". United Press International. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
- ^ "Sugartime - Cast & Crew". TV Guide. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
External links
- Dan Rowan at IMDb