Chad Everett, who played a young, sensitive surgeon for seven seasons on the 1970s CBS drama Medical Center, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75.
The blue-eyed, dark-haired Everett starred as Joe Gannon alongside veteran actor James Daly on the MGM Television series that aired from 1969-76, one of the longest-lasting medical shows in TV history at that time.
The Medical Center role earned the Indiana native Golden Globe nominations in 1971 (when the series captured the HFPA’s award for best TV drama) and 1973. He also owned 15 percent of the series.
During his 40-year career, Everett also played a deputy in the 1963 TV Western The Dakotas; starred as an outdoorsman who moves to San Francisco to fight crime in Hagen, a 1980 CBS drama; and appeared as an aging lothario who engages in a steamy audition with Naomi Watts in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).
Everett guest-starred on such TV series as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Murder, She Wrote, Without a Trace and most recently on an episode of Castle that aired in February.
His film credits include Get Yourself a College Girl (1964), Made in Paris (1966) with Ann-Margret, The Singing Nun (1969) with Debbie Reynolds, The Firechasers (1971), The Jigsaw Murders (1989) and Gus Van Sant‘s remake of Psycho (1998).
Everett also was selected by the family of John Wayne to be the voice of the animatronic figure of the legendary actor in Disney MGM Studios’ Great Movie Ride in Orlando. He also recorded a couple of albums, including 1971’s All Strung Out, on which he covers “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
Everett was born in South Bend, Ind., and graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit before moving to Los Angeles and becoming a contract player with MGM. He famously battled and beat alcoholism in the 1980s.
He is survived by daughters Katherine and Shannon and six grandchildren. His wife of 45 years, actress Shelby Grant, died in June 2011.
