For two weeks, no one knew where he was. Not his studio, producer or director. Hollywood had definitely lost track of him, and he wanted it that way. But where was he? Well, Marty Milner was floating down his favorite river on a raft with his wife and four children. They had parked their motor home 125 miles from the little town of Salmon in Northern California after having traveled through miles and miles of magnificent canyons and primitive wilderness. "The fishing that time of year was not that great," said Marty, after I had succeeded in tracking him down. "The water was too low and warm, but we did catch some trout. The important thing was that the kids could swim. They'd jump off the raft, and we'd tow them in with ropes. Some of the time it was rough, but that, too, was pretty exciting. Nights we'd go ashore on the beach. Our guide had all the gear: the air mattresses, sleeping bags and food. That was only the second time we'd ever gone camping, but we all enjoyed it.
"We even had a tent, but we didn't use it. Everyone wants to go back next year. We love traveling together. I guess that's why we especially cherished the last vacation. It's the first one we'd been able to take since 'Adam-12' got started, (it's our fifth season and going strong)."
However, in Marty's contract this year, he has specifically nailed down next year's vacation. "The kids couldn't see it any other way--and neither could their old man. "There's Amy, 14, Molly, 11, Stuart, ten, and eight-year-old Andrew. We love country living. We moved to the country three years ago. So for 24 weeks a year, I work; the rest of the time is my family's. I'm not the kind of guy who goes bowling with the 'boys.' When I'm home, I'm home.
"Judy and I talked it over very thoroughly before we made the big move. We'd been looking for a ranch, a real working one, for several years and then we found this one with acres of avocado trees. There was only one problem: it was 100 miles from Hollywood. Judy felt that if I wanted it, fine. I was in a good series, it was a good move, so we made the big decision: I would commute."
On nights when Marty can't be with his family, he talks to them on the phone. You don't have to know him long to realize that acting is his job, but the basic thing is his wife and kids. He's not about to let any one of them feel shortchanged, or to be shortchanged himself.
"They're each very different," Marty goes on to say. "Molly would like to be a veterinarian; she's a 'horse girl.' I guess all kids who like animals think they'd like to be vets. Andrew is only interested in becoming a football player. That's it. And he just may be. He goes down and plays with the older boys. Stuart talks about being an attorney, but he may be cooling off on that, I don't know. He's a very primitive person; you don't know what's going on in his head, but I kind of like that in him. He'd make a good attorney. He likes to sit and figure things out.
"The only one with an acting dream is Amy. She studied drama and loved it." Martin doesn't discourage her, he's not dead set against it, but he doesn't encourage her either. "I just don't think it's a good life for a child, although she's at the same age now that I was when I started."
At 14 he was working in his first film, "Life With Father." His parents were quite opposed to the whole idea: "Of course, I had no plan of doing this for a living. I'd been with the Cornish Players up in Seattle and I just enjoyed it. Any child is going to pursue something he senses he can do well.
But I think the acting business is much tougher for a girl. I don't know why, but in many cases it masculinizes a woman. The amount of drive needed to succeed is really so great. I've known actresses who certainly were the epitome of softness, but internally were as tough as any man. It's just more difficult for a woman to survive."
His wife was a very successful--and feminine--singer and TV actress. When they met she was earning excellent money, just about as much as Martin was making when he appeared in "The Sweet Smell of Success."
"She was only 22, and she was really an achiever," Martin says. "Boy, the things she did. She'd walk in on some band leader cold and say, 'Do you need a girl singer?' I remember once she went to every fraternity house at USC because she knew that some of them had combos and she would sing for nothing if they'd let her. She had come from Illinois and had been on one of those amateur shows where they had a panel of showbusiness performers that rated the talent.
"She told me flat out that she had no intention of working after we were married. She really wanted to make a home and have children. She wanted six...until she had four. I was really pleased because that's the kind of life I had in mind, too.
"I remember once, when we were married for four or five months, Judy was offered a role in a TV series that was being readied. She was pursuaded to do the pilot and they convinced her that if she did the series, she'd only have to work one day a week. She finally agreed to do just the pilot and I remember those first three days. It wasn't possible to live with her; she complained, she hated it, she wanted to be home making dinner. Judy's obviously an exception to the rule. The amount of drive she needed to achieve her degree of success...I don't know how she was able to turn that off, particularly at 22.
I could turn mine off and retire. At lease I think I could. It would be easy. I'd run the ranch, which takes a fair amount of time, see parts of the world I've never seen, go fishing once a month, sail. If the choice were between working harder than I'm working now, or not working at all, I'd have to opt for not working at all."
But he didn't always feel this way. At ten, he discovered acting was what he could do best, so he acted, first with the Cornish Theater in Seattle; then when he was starting junior high school, he picked up an agent, and at 14 he had snagged the role of John Day, the oldest son in "Life With Father" starring Irene Dunne and William Powell. He worked on it for five months--"an awfully long time when you're a kid. I was very bored by the end of it and was eager to get back to school and my friends.
"For a year-and-a-half afterwards, I really didn't do anymore acting. I had one bit part at Columbia and worked a week, and that was it until I was 17. I suppose my lack of offers was commensurate with my lack of experience and the fact that I was a big kid. Any role I could play as a 16-year-old could be done by an 18-year-old and a studio wouldn't have to put up with social workers and tutors on the set. I didn't start working until I began fabricating my age."
He was 17 and being interviewed by veteran producer Herbert Yates for a part in "The Sands of Iwo Jima." It was an excellent role for a young fellow, the pay was good and at one point during the interview, Yates asked Marty his age. Marty said, without thinking, "18." He got the part and when the picture was premiered, at a celebration dinner, Marty, who was seated next to the producer, mentioned that it was his birthday. "Yes, I know," smiled Yates. "You're finally 18."
From then on he worked constantly. That's why he stayed in the business. "My dad was concerned (and with good reason), that this wasn't a stable business, but he needn't have worried. He died when I was 19, but I think he knew that I would never have stayed in unless I was making good money. I couldn't live happily in a garrett. I like the fine things in life. So do my kids.
"We certainly try not to spoil them. They each have certain responsibilities, and under duress, like most kids, they accept same. The girls take care of their own horses, our dogs and their rooms. The boys do some yard work, take care of the mini-bikes and help me fix mechanical things."
The move to the country was not designed to spirit the young Milners away from Hollywood, but country living has a lot on its side. "They've made friends. The schools as excellent. They don't have the same pressures as in larger, more sophisticated areas. If you were 17 in Beverly Hills and didn't have a car, it would be a catastrophe. Here, there isn't much of that attitude. And there are certainly less hard narcotics in this atmosphere than in the city."
Whatever questions his kids have, Marty answers honestly. "I don't think smoking marijuana is necessarily going to turn a person into a raving addict, but I also tell my kids that smoking grass is a felony. It's not fun being caught for a felony; it's a pretty bad rap. It it were not a felony, I would allow them, when they were old enough, to make their own decision. But it is illegal and a crime.
"I think that the children of successful performers have, more often than not, an extra burden to bear. You certainly should have something to fall back on."
Marty's children certainly have. They have the love of their parents that can never be questioned. The Milner home, with its four bedrooms and two baths, the whole second floor for the children, and attic converted into a great game room, is the kind of house you'd expect them to have--homey and beautiful, light and airy. It is a place where a family lives together.