Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller

Blessed with a mellifluous speaking voice, Marvin Miller went into radio straight out of college; he appeared in more West Coast-based network programs than can possibly be catalogued here. In films, the heavyset Miller was often cast as a villain, usually oriental (e.g., Blood on the Sun). He is perhaps best remembered by mystery buffs as crime boss Morris Carnovsky's sadistic henchman in the 1947 Humphrey Bogart vehicle Dead Reckoning. Miller continued as both a seen and unseen actor into the 1970s, recording several long-playing albums in which he read classic poetry and literature, and providing voice-overs for the cartoon output of the Disney and UPA studios. Miller's best-known TV role was as Michael Anthony, secretary to the "late, fabulously wealthy John Beresford Tipton" on TV's The Millionaire. From 1955 through 1960, Miller, as Anthony, handed out one million-dollar check per week to unsuspecting fictional recipients; the series brought Miller headaches as well as stardom, inasmuch as he was bombarded with thousands of requests from real-life millionaire wannabes who had trouble separating fact from fiction. Like his voice-artist colleague, Paul Frees (who was the voice of Millionaire's John Beresford Tipton), Marvin Miller eventually grew very rich -- and very corpulent -- on residuals for his extensive TV and commercial work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide