Dean Miller (broadcaster)

Dean Miller (November 1, 1924 – January 13, 2004), born Dean C. Stuhlmueller, was an American actor and broadcaster, perhaps best known for his role as the son-in-law in the CBS sitcom December Bride (1954–1959). Thereafter, Miller was a co-host of the NBC celebrity interview program Here's Hollywood.

Miller was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State University in Columbus. He worked first at a radio station in Albany, New York.^[1] He left for Hollywood and made his screen debut in 1952 as Archie O'Conovan in the film Skirts Ahoy! and followed up that same year with appearances as Ben Jones in Because You're Mine and as Monty Dunstan in Everything I Have Is Yours. In 1953, he played Mac in Small Town Girl and George in Dream Wife with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.^[2]

In 1954, Miller was cast as 30-year-old Matt Henshaw, an architect, in December Bride, opposite Spring Byington as his widowed mother-in-law, Lily Ruskin, and Frances Rafferty as his television wife, Ruth Ruskin Henshaw.^[3] Verna Felton and Harry Morgan also had recurring supporting roles in the series as Hilda Crocker, Lily's best friend, and Pete Porter, the wisecracking nextdoor neighbor who was an insurance agent. Most of the scenes were in the Henshaw's living room. The series was sufficiently successful that it spawned a spin-off, Pete and Gladys (1960–1962) starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams as Pete and Gladys Porter.^[4]

After December Bride, Miller acted only twice in a television series, as "Millionaire Harry Brown" in a 1959 episode of CBS's The Millionaire fantasy drama, and as George Manville in the 1960 segment "Happily Unmarried" of NBC's short-lived sitcom The Tab Hunter Show. He then joined Here's Hollywood, where he often interviewed stars and singers in their own homes, including Cary Grant, Paul Newman, and Elizabeth Taylor. In 1963, Miller appeared as a guest on the NBC daytime quiz show Your First Impression, with Bill Leyden and Dennis James.^[2]

In 1965, Miller purchased radio station WMVR-FM (105.5), then an AM outlet in Sidney, Ohio.^[1] Miller later served as a news anchorman for WDIV-TV in Detroit. He died of cancer at the age of seventy-nine in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, near Detroit. Survivors included his wife, the former Ida Wagner, who still operates the radio station, and three children. Miller is interred at Graceland Cemetery in Sidney, Ohio.^[1]

References

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