A graduate of Bowdoin and Trinity college, Gary Merrill began acting on-stage in 1937, where his weathered countenance and booming voice enabled him to play characters much older than himself. While serving as an Army corporal in WWII, he made his screen debut in 20th Century Fox's all-servicemen drama Winged Victory (1944). Five years later, Fox signed him to a long-term contract, assigning him choice roles in such major productions as 12 O'Clock High (1949), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), and Phone Call From a Stranger (1953). In 1950 he was cast as Broadway director Bill Sampson in the Oscar-winning All About Eve (1950), appearing for the first time opposite his future wife Bette Davis (they divorced in 1960). In later years, his film career took second place to his political activities, particularly during the Vietnam war. On television, he starred in such series as The Mask (1954), Justice (1954), and The Reporter (1966), and was the narrator of the 1960 documentary weekly Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years. In 1989, Gary Merrill published his autobiography, Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989) in which he painstakingly detailed his stormy ten-year marriage to Bette Davis and his equally tempestuous affair with Rita Hayworth.