Gavin MacLeod, the veteran supporting actor who achieved fame as sardonic TV news writer Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and stardom playing cheerful Capt Stubing on The Love Boat, died. He was 90. Gavin died early Saturday at his home in Palm Desert, California, said Stephanie Steele Zalin, his stepdaughter. She attributed his death to his age, saying he had been well until very recently.
“He had one of the most amazing, fun blasts of a life of anybody I know. He enjoyed every minute of it,” Stephanie Steele Zalin said. “I don’t even think in his wildest dreams he dreamt of the life that he ended up having and creating.” She called him the “best, sweetest, purest guy.” Ed Asner, who played opposite Gavin on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, said on Twitter that “my heart is broken. Gavin was my brother, my partner in crime (and food) and my comic conspirator.” Known to sitcom fans for his bald head and wide smile, Gavin toiled in near anonymity for more than a decade, appearing on dozens of TV shows and in several movies before landing the part of Murray in 1970.
