Joe Maross

Early years

Born in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania, Maross was a drama student at Yale University.

Military service

Serving in the Marines, Maross was stationed in Hawaii during World War II.

Career

Maross's Broadway credits include Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath (1949) and The Innkeepers (1955).

Among the movies he appeared in were Run Silent, Run Deep, Elmer Gantry, Zig Zag, and Rich and Famous.

Maross played Captain Mike Benton in the ABC-TV drama Code Red. He appeared in many other television series between 1952 and 1986. Among them were Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Season 4 Episode 15 "A Personal Matter" as Joe Philips (18 Jan. 1959), three episodes of Perry Mason, including the role of defendant Nelson Tarr in the 1963 episode, "The Case of the Potted Planter," and as David Lambert in the 1960 episode "The Case of the Crying Cherub." He also guest-starred in Behind Closed Doors, Mission: Impossible, The Fugitive, The Outer Limits, Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958 TV series)Wanted: Dead or Alive", "The Invaders, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Twelve O'Clock High, The Time Tunnel (in an episode of which he portrayed George Armstrong Custer), Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, The Rockford Files, the Combat! episode "A Little Jazz", and the Bonanza episode "Escape to Ponderosa". He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone: "Third from the Sun" and "The Little People".

He was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was reputed to be an enthusiastic screener of the DVDs which studios send to Academy members for award consideration.

On November 7, 2009, he died of cardiac arrest in Glendale, California at the age of 86.