George Maharis, Star of ‘Route 66,’ Dies At 94

• George Maharis has died at age 94.
• He was the star of the show ‘Route 66’ in the 1960s.
• He was diagnosed with hepatitis while working on the show, causing health problems.

George Maharis, who played the role of Buz Murdock on Route 66, has died at the age of 94. He died last week in his home in Beverly Hills, as confirmed by his longtime friend and caregiver, Marc Bahan.

Route 66 was created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard in the 1960s, and featured Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette.

Remembering George Maharis

Maharis once opened up about the iconic show, saying it “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them.” Midway through production of the series, Maharis came down with hepatitis and was subsequently hospitalized for a month and missed several episodes. Written out of the show, it was said that Buz was in a Cleveland hospital battling an “echo virus.” Meanwhile, Tod acquired a new companion, Lincoln Case, played by Glenn Corbett.

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Maharis would return to the show, but he didn’t last long as he suffered a relapse. His doctors would then tell him, “‘If you don’t get out now, you’re either going to be dead or you’re going to have permanent liver damage,’” Maharis recalled in a 2007 interview. He would go on to say that it took him more than two years before he was able to work again.

Maharis would later jump into movies, including the light comedy Quick Before It Melts (1964). He then starred opposite Carroll Baker in Sylvia (1965), in A Covenant With Death (1967), and in The Happening (1967). By the ’70s, he’d return to television once more. He appeared on shows like The Most Deadly Game, the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, as well as Marcus Welby, M.D., Night Gallery, McMillan & Wife, The Bionic Woman, and Fantasy Island.

Rest in peace.