Martin Milner had everything to live for: a happy marriage to a lovely lady who has borne him four attractive, healthy youngsters, a firmly-entrenched career on television, and an exciting, absorbing avocation. Though on his popular series (Adam-12--now in its sixth season), he plays a seasoned cop, Marty is actually a rookie rancher. Last year be bought a 24-acre plot with 2,500 fruit-bearing trees near Fallbrook, Calilfornia (about 100 miles from Hollywood), and went into the avocado business. But this year, the ranch was in danger of losing its top hand as Milner lay in a Cincinnati hospital fighting for his life...
...It's happening again, he thought as the strange symptoms brought on the familiar pain. Lying in the hospital pondering his fate, he tried to analyze what set of circumstances had landed him there; he tried to trace the onslaught of the malady that was laying siege to his tormented body--to figure out what had provoked the most recent threat to the bright future that just being alive insured. But he couldn't. The whole thing seemed senseless. A feeling of unreality gripped him.
There he had been, just days before, touring the country with series co-star Kent McCord, helping to promote a Department of Transportation program of public safety designed to prevent drunken drivers from sending their victims to the hospital. And here he was now, in the hospital himself, suffering from "a mysterious case of blood poisoning."
Blood poisoning! He found the idea inconceivable. How had he picked it up? Where? When? Why? Milner didn't know the answers. Neither did the doctors. That's what caused the terrible apprehension--the mystery surrounding the illness.
Martin's family was terrified. The wife and children who loved him above all else in the world, felt powerless to help him in the crisis that was rapidly approaching. Their only recourse was to raise their voices in prayer. And his only recourse was to add his voice to theirs.
The sensation of helplessness was not new to Milner. He was no stranger to mysterious ailments. Staring at the stark white hospital wall he was reminded of the day 25 years before when, as a teen-aged schoolboy, he'd first been victimized by one...
...Returning home from his classes, Marty complained of a headache, fever, and a very stiff neck. The doctor was summoned but, although he suspected what was causing the symptoms, he would make no definite diagnosis until a spinal tap could be performed on the ailing adolescent. The spinal tap confirmed everyone's worst suspicions. Martin was suffering from polio. The panic set in--the panic and the pain. The fear for life and limb. And when the fear for life seemed groundless, the fear for limb increased double-fold.
After the disease subsided, there were months of despair for Milner as he was subjected to residual muscular cramps and attacks of debilitated coordination. He was afraid that not only had the acting career he'd already started (as one of the young sons in the film Life With Father) come to a premature end but all the physical activity that had marked his early life as well.
A sports enthusiast as far back as he can remember, Milner, a sturdy youngster, became a fine athlete as he entered his teens. He once revealed that many a time when he was supposed to be on the set of Life With Father awaiting a cue, he would sneak out to box with Mushie Callahan, the ex-middleweight contender who ran the Warner Brothers gym.
"I'd sweat all my make-up off and hold up the production twenty minutes," Marty confessed. "I was a kid. I didn't have the discipline. If they'd give me two hours for lunch, I'd take off and play baseball.--I'd give 'em fits, I guess."
But if Marty didn't have the discipline before he was felled by polio, he learned it in the traumatic year that followed his illness. He had to undergo rigorous therapy to tone up his weakened muscle tissue--to prevent the cripplig that is the usual aftermath of a bout with infantile paralysis.
Marty defeated his formidable opponent with a knockout punch he didn't learn while sparring with Mushie Callahan. He had developed it years before, fighting the elements which made his childhood "one long, violent storm."
Born in Detroit during the early Depression years, Milner moved from there to Cleveland, then to Seattle with his parents while his father tried to earn a new fortune to replace the one he'd relinquished when he married the girl he loved.
"My father went to the University of Texas in 1926 in a custom-built Packard and in 1931, he didn't have carfare because he had married my mother (an ex-dancer). Dad's father never met her, but he never forgave him for marrying her."
When Milner arrived on the scene, his father was a construction laborer. Sam Milner later progressed to advertising space salesman for a national magazine and eventually became a film distributor--but not before his family suffered through a long period of privation.
Marty was an only child--"I'm one of one," he has quipped. He got his first taste of show business at age 11 when he staged "a somewhat edited performance" of Robin Hood. That just whetted his appetite and he subsequently attended Seattle's Cornish Playhouse (Washington's equivalent of California's Pasadena Playhouse) after school hours.
When his parents moved to California, and the financial situation eased, Marty insisted on studying with a drama coach a couple of afternoons a week. "Neither of my parents wanted me to be an actor, but I think they thought I'd get it out of my system eventually." He was almost forced to when he contracted polio. But the trying year of recuperation was followed by a complete cure...
...A complete cure--a complete cure--that was what Marty and his family prayed for this time. As his life lay in the balance, the walls of his hospital room in Cincinnati were transformed by his mind's eye into motion picture screens on which were projected memories of his youth...
...Graduating from North Hollywood High School at 17, he lied about his age and secured a job as a Marine in Sands of Iwo Jima with John Wayne. For the next two years, he interspersed his movie and TV work (at one time he had running roles on two overlapping series: Stu Erwin's The Trouble With Father and Bill Bendix's The Life of Riley) with attempts at gaining a higher education. But after some study at Valley State junior college and a year at the University of Southern California, Milner quit school to become a full-time actor.
Drafted into the Army, he became a full-time soldier instead. However, during his 2-year hitch, he directed some 20 training films and served as master of ceremonies for a touring show unit based at Fort Ord.
While still in the Service, he was cast in The Long Gray Line (starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara). And upon his release, he picked up his film career where he had left off...
...He had to pick up his TV career where he had left off, Marty told himself as he felt his poisoned blood pounding through his weary body. Five years on Adam-12 and who knows, maybe five more years if he could just conquer this strange illness and get back to work and to his family..."
...Milner met singer Judy Jones at a dinner party in 1957. A momentous day in a momentous year! In that 12-month period, he met and married Judy, and played two major roles in two major films: Sweet Smell of Success and Marjorie Morningstar.
1959 was another momentous year for Milner. His first child, Amy, was born and he started filming the TV series Route 66 on which he subsequently spent four years starring as Tod Stiles. The show required Marty to tour for 10 months of the year. But for 6 of those months he took his rapidly increasing family with him. (His second daughter Molly arrived in 1961, and his two sons, Stuart and Andrew made their bows in 1962 and 1964 respectively).
To keep his clan together, Marty drove a camper "loaded to the fenders with luggage and gear." He told a curious reporter: "We carry more stuff than you'd believe possible. In addition to suitcases we pack an ironing board, baby stoller, highchair, phonograph and records, clothes for the two seasons (because of the various climates we hit), an electric frying pan and coffee pot."
During the run of the series, Milner rented over 25 homes along the route to shelter his mobile menage. But when production on 66 ended, he was happy to return to his permanent home (until he purchased the ranch, that is) in the San Fernando Valley--and to resume making films.
He appeared in Valley of the Dolls and Sullivan's Empire before producer Jack Webb snapped him up in 1968 for the role of Officer Pete Malloy on Adam-12. Since the show was filmed in Hollywood, Milner was finally able to put down roots. The camper was only used for family vacation excursions because after three days of production each week, Marty was able to spend four days at home...
...Home--home--oh, how he wanted to get well, to get out of the hospital and go home. The fuzziness was beginning to clear; Milner was responding to medication. The importance of the how, where, why and when of his mysterious illness faded into the background as he started to recover rapidly. It hardly seemed possible--it was like a miracle--but after five days of confinement, he was on his feet again.
The doctors told him he could leave the hospital and resume his tour for the Department of Transportation. Martin was overjoyed. He realized it would be just a matter of days before he would be home again, surrounded by his solicitous and loving family.
"Milner won't forget his visit to Cincinnati for some time," said one newsman, commenting on the recent near-tragedy. Milner concurred.
In his forty-plus years, Martin has had two narrow escapes. They were 25 years apart. Not superstitious enough to believe in the three-time theory, the actor nevertheless hopes that if he must flirt with Death again, it won't be for another 25 years. Milner is a happy man and he treasures life as only a happy man can.