Patrick McVey

Patrick McVey (March 17, 1910 – July 6, 1973) was an American actor born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who built a career spanning stage, film, and television over more than three decades. He earned both an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Indiana University and practiced as an attorney before turning to acting. His early performance experience came through little theater productions, and he later trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He became a life member of The Actors Studio.

McVey made his film debut in 1941 with uncredited appearances in eight pictures, the first of which was Caught in the Draft. More than a dozen additional uncredited film roles followed in 1942, and in 1946 he appeared in director Jean Yarbrough's thriller The Brute Man. Supporting parts remained the norm for McVey in film, though he went on to appear in Frank Sinatra's The Detective in 1968 and played Dr. Hansen across seven episodes of the soap opera The Doctors in 1972. His final screen appearance came in the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly.

His Broadway career extended from 1947 to 1970 and included productions such as Hold It! (1947), Detective Story, Bus Stop, Catch Me if You Can, Camino Real (1969), and The Time of Your Life (1969). McVey was married to Courteen Landis, herself a Broadway performer.

Television proved to be the most prominent arena of McVey's career. He made his small screen debut on September 5, 1950, in the series Suspense, and within weeks had taken on his first starring role on the following week's episode. Less than a month later, he began a four-year run as Steve Wilson, the crusading managing editor at the center of Big Town, a newspaper melodrama in which he appeared in 160 episodes before departing in 1954. That same year he appeared in two episodes of Kraft Television Theater, and he subsequently guest-starred on programs including The Gale Storm Show, The Millionaire, Playhouse 90, Hazel, and Bourbon Street Beat, as well as four Westerns: The Restless Gun, Man Without a Gun, Sugarfoot, and Bat Masterson.

From 1957 to 1958, McVey co-starred in the syndicated series Boots and Saddles as Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Hayes. Following that series, he was cast as police reporter Ben Andrews in Manhunt, which ran until its cancellation in 1961. Guest roles continued throughout the early 1960s on series including General Electric Theater, Cheyenne, Tombstone Territory, The Rifleman, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke. He appeared three times on Perry Mason, among them the role of District Attorney Covington in the 1959 episode "The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom." His later television work included the CBS drama The Nurses and the role of John Harris in the soap opera Dark Shadows in 1966.

McVey died on July 6, 1973, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.