Actor and talk show host Gary Collins died over the weekend at the age of 74. Collins made his movie debut in The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) and co-starred in the TV Western Iron Horse from 1966 to 1968. He also starred in a number of shorter-lived TV series in the 1960s and '70s, including The Wackiest Ship In The Army (1966-67), The Sixth Sense (1972), and Born Free (1974). He was also in the 1970 movie Airport and made guest appearances on several shows, the most recent being Dirty Sexy Money in 2009.
Collins truly found his niche when he began hosting the syndicated, light-chat daytime show Hour Magazine, described in one press release as a show whose objective was “to consistently inform and entertain without forcing kids to leave the room and without anyone shouting at you.”
Hour went off the air in 1989, a victim of the trend of, well, daytime talk shows full of people shouting at you about stuff that would see parents force their kids to leave the room. Collins promptly jumped to ABC’s daytime talk show Home, which he hosted from 1989 to 1994. He also emceed the Miss America Pageant from 1982 to 1990, and co-hosted the March of Dimes telethons with his wife, 1959 Miss America winner Mary Ann Mobley.