Jeremy Slate

 played McMann & Tate photographer Wally Ames in the first season episode, Ling Ling (1965).

Biography
Jeremy Slate was born on February 17, 1926, in Margate, New Jersey. He attended a military academy, joined the Navy at sixteen and was eighteen when he was involved in the invasion of Normandy. Aboard a destroyer at Omaha Beach, Slate vowed if he survived the attack he would make his life a never-ending series of adventures. He lived up to that promise as during his lifetime, Slate had a variety of careers and accomplishments.

After the war, Slate graduated with honors from Saint Lawrence University in Upstate New York. He was president of the student body, editor of the college literary magazine, football player and backfield coach of the only undefeated freshman team in the school's history. A campus radio personality, during his senior year he married the queen of his fraternity's ball. Chosen for the school's Honor Society, he was a BMOC ("big man on campus").

After graduating, Slate became a professional radio sportscaster and disc jockey for CBS and ABC affiliates while beginning a family, which ultimately included three sons and two daughters.

For six years Slate worked for the public relations firm, W.R. Grace, as travel manager for its president, J. Peter Grace. He then joined the Grace Steamship Line and moved with his family to Lima, Peru. While living in South America he joined a professional theater group and became involved with the production of "The Rainmaker" at the Professional English Language Theatre in Lima. He was awarded the Tiahuanacothe, the Peruvian equivalent of the Tony Award, for his portrayal of the character, Starbuck.

The next year, Slate was cast in a small but significant role on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Look Homeward, Angel." He did 254 performances.

Slate's television career began in the 1950s with numerous guest-starring roles in popular shows such as "Gunsmoke," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Perry Mason." He has guest-starred on nearly one-hundred television shows and appeared in twenty feature films. During the early 1960s, Slate was a teen heartthrob as the star of the television series "The Aquanauts." He also had an eight-year run as Chuck Wilson on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live." His final performance was on the NBC comedy "My Name is Earl."

Slate received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Sergeant Major Patrick O'Neill, a soft-spoken Canadian judo expert, in the 1968 film "The Devil's Brigade," a World War Two saga starring William Holden and Cliff Robertson. Slate worked with some of the top people in Hollywood, including Elvis Presley, Frankie Avalon, Van Johnson and John Wayne.

Slate also appeared in several "biker films," including "The Born Losers" (1967) as the sadistic leader of a bike gang, "Mini-Skirt Mob" (1968), "Hell's Belles" (1970) and acted in and wrote the story for "Hell's Angels '69" (1969). During the filming of "Hell's Angels," Slate broke his leg, and he never rode a motorcycle again.

Staying true to the vow he made during the invasion of Normandy, over the course of his life, Slate was a lifeguard, swimming instructor, the first person to swim across the Long Island Sound after the war, a prolific writer, a songwriter, screenplay writer and director.

Jeremy Slate died on November 9, 2006, at the USC University Hospital following complications from esophageal cancer surgery. He was 80. Slate was survived by his sons, Jeremy and Jason, his daughters, Jamie and Reba, and his partner, Joan Steiger.