Born in Spokane, Wash., McGavin was sketchy in interviews about his childhood, explaining that he was a constant runaway at 10 and 11, and as a teen lived in warehouses in Tacoma, Wash., and dodged the police and welfare workers after his parents disappeared. He spent a year at College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., taking part in dramatics and making his stage debut in an Actors Lab production of "Lilliom," then he anded in Los Angeles. He washed dishes and was hired to paint sets at Columbia studio. He was working on the set "A Song to Remember" when an agent told him of an opening for a small role. He climbed off the painter's ladder, abandoned his job and cleaned up, returning to the Columbia lot with the agent and was subsequently hired by dorector Charles Vidor to make his sceen debut in that film--after the paint foreman, who was the only one who recognized him out of his work clothes, fired him.

Moving to NYC, he studied at both the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio before making his debut on Broadway in a walk-on in "The Lady Says No!" in 1948. The next year he played a memorable Happy in "Death of a Salesman" and frequently appeared on stage into the mid-60s, including a turn as the monarch of Siam in a St. Louis Municipal Opera production of "The King and I" in 1955. After an absence of almost 20 years, McGavin briefly appeared in the 1985 Off-Broadway production "California Dog Fight".

McGavin first garnered attention on screen as the young painter in Venice in David Lean's "Summertime" and as the smooth drug pusher in Otto Preminger's "The Man With the Golden Arm" (both 1955). Despite these fine performances, a film career never fully materialized. Instead, McGavin turned to the small screen where he found almost constant work. He was the crack photographer for the fictional THE MORNING EXPRESS in "Crime Photographer" (CBS, 1951-1952) and was the first actor to portray "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" (syndication, 1957-1958). From 1959-1961, McGavin skippered "Riverboat" (NBC) and later turned private eye in "The Outsider" (NBC, 1968-69). Perhaps his best-known role, however, is crime reporter Carl Kolchak who often encountered cases that involved the supernatural (i.e., vampires. werewolves) in "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" (ABC, 1974-75) (As the series has been cited often as a forerunner for the popular 90s show "The X-Files", it was not surprising when McGavin showed up as former FBI agent Arthur Dales in two episodes of the series).

As the 80s dawned, McGavin moved to more comedic roles, playing an old-time private investigator with an eager young partner in the short-lived CBS sitcom "Small and Frye" (1983). One of his best and most beloved film roles was his slyly funny turn as the gruff, profanity-spouting, turkey-loving father (known as "The Old Man") of a young boy who desperately wants a Red Ryder BB rifle in director Bob Clark's sweetly charming film version of Jean Shephard's nostalgic 1940s-era memoir, "A Christmas Story" (1983). Although the film only performed modestly in its initial release, it gradually became a time-honored holiday classic fondly regarded by millions via home video and repeated showings on cable TV during the Christmas season, and the role joined that of Kolchak as among McGavin's most iconic.

As he aged McGavin never lacked for work, with roles in feature films such as the family comedy "No Deposit, No Return" (1976), "Airport '77" (1977) "The Natural" (1984), "Turk 182!" (1985), "Raw Deal" (1986) and "Dead Heat" (1988, as well as an array of TV miniseries and movies including playing Gen. George S. Patton in the mini "Ike" (1979) and E.K. Hornbeck in a TV remake of "Inherit the Wind" (1988). His television credits continued to accumulate with frequent guest shots on an array of popular series, among them "Magnum P.I.,""Highway to Heaven," "Murder She Wrote," "Sisters," "The Commish," "Touched by an Angel," "Millenium" and the aforementioned "X-Files." He also began making infrequent appearances as the curmudgeonly father of Candice Bergen's "Murphy Brown", winning a 1990 Emmy for one appearance. While toward the end of his career he marked time in such dismal direct-to-video fodder as "Captain America" (1991) and "Happy Hell Night" (1992), McGavin continued to appear in higher profile material like "Billy Madison" (1995), as Adam Sandler's father. Fittingly, the actor's last on-screen appearance was in a cameo as a reporter in the pilot episode of ABC's 2005 remake of "Night Stalker," shorlty before his death of natural causes in early 2006 at age 83.