Patrick McVey

Early life

McVey was born in Fort Wayne in Allen County in northeastern Indiana. His education included undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University. He was an attorney before he became interested in acting. His early acting experience came in little theater productions, and then he honed his skills at Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Career

McVey had experience on stage prior to his film debut in 1941, when he made uncredited appearances in eight films, beginning with Caught in the Draft. More than a dozen uncredited film roles followed in 1942. In 1946, he appeared in director Jean Yarbrough's thriller, The Brute Man. McVey seldom rose above supporting player roles in films but had more success on television.

His Broadway credits include Camino Real (1969), The Time of Your Life (1969), and Hold It! (1947).

A life member of The Actors Studio, McVey made his small screen debut on September 5, 1950, in the early but long-running CBS series Suspense. On the following week's episode, he had his first starring role, and less than a month later, McVey began a four-year role (160 episodes) as Steve Wilson, the crusading managing editor of the fictitious Illustrated Press, in Big Town, a melodrama set in a newspaper office in a large American city. He left the series in 1954. That same year, McVey appeared in two episodes of NBC's Kraft Television Theater. Thereafter, McVey guest starred on The Gale Storm Show, The Millionaire, Playhouse 90, Hazel, Bourbon Street Beat, and in four Westerns: The Restless Gun, Man Without a Gun, Sugarfoot, and Bat Masterson.

From 1957 to 1958, McVey co-starred in the syndicated series Boots and Saddles as Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Hayes.^:125 After the series ended in 1958, McVey was cast as police reporter Ben Andrews in another syndicated series, Manhunt.^:653 Manhunt was canceled in 1961, and McVey continued his career with guest roles on various television series including General Electric Theater, Cheyenne, Tombstone Territory, The Rifleman, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and three appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of District Attorney Covington in the 1959 episode, "The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom."

McVey's last television roles were in the CBS drama The Nurses, and as the character John Harris in the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows (1966). In 1968, he was cast in Frank Sinatra's The Detective. McVey made his last on-screen appearance in the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly.

Personal life and death

McVey was married to Courteen Landis, a Broadway performer, before he died on July 6, 1973. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.