Veteran Actor Joe Maross Dies at 86
A familiar face on the large and small screen, Maross had dozens of television credits, including many in the live era.
Joe Maross, a prolific character best known for a television career that began in the 1950s and continued through the 1980s, died of cardiac arrest on November 7, 2009, at a convalescent hospital in Glendale. He was 86.
He began his career in live television in New York City. His first credit came in 1952, when he appeared in the anthology drama Lux Video Theatre. Other early credits included Studio One, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Philco-Goodyear Television Theater, Kraft Television Theater and The United States Steel Hour.
In 1957, Maross moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to notch many TV credits, including Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, The Rockford Files, Dallas and Murder, She Wrote.
In addition to television, he scored roles in such movies as Run Silent Run Deep, Elmer Gantry, Sometimes a Great Notion, The Salzburg Connection and Rich and Famous.
Maross was born February 7, 1923, in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. He served in the Marines during World War II, and was stationed for a time in Hawaii.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts at Yale University in 1947 and appeared on Broadway in the ’50s in Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath and The Innkeepers.
Maross was a founding member of the Los Angeles based acting, writing and directing group Projects 58 as well as a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He is survived by a son from his marriage to actress Carol Kelly, which ended in divorce.