Donald Adam May (February 22, 1929 – January 28, 2022) was an American actor who was known for his roles in '' Colt .45'' (1957–1960) and ''

The Edge of Night ''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...

''.

Early years

May was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Leontine Frances (Torczynski) and Harry Stuart May. He attended elementary school in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1949, he graduated from the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

with a bachelor of arts degree. May joined the U.S. Navy in 1951 and was discharged in 1955.

Career

Before he finished college, May acted in summer stock theater in Surrey, Maine, in 1948. After graduation, he acted on stage in Albany, New York, and Brattleboro, Vermont. He also acted in Signal Corps films. May's first credited role was in 1956–1957 as Cadet Charles C. Thompson as the host of the ABC military drama series '' The West Point Story''. Donald May Colt 45 1960

In 1959–1960, May temporarily replaced

Wayde Preston Wayde Preston (born William Erksine Strange; September 10, 1929 – February 6, 1992) was an American actor cast from 1957 to 1960 in the lead role in 67 episodes of the American Broadcasting Company, ABC/Warner Bros. Western (genre), Western ...

as the lead in four episodes of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

, '' Colt .45''. May portrayed "Sam Colt, Jr.," cousin to Preston's character, Christopher Colt. He subsequently appeared in several other ABC/WB series, ''

Sugarfoot ''Sugarfoot'' is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with ''Cheyenne'' (first season); ''Cheyenne'' and ''Bronco'' (second season); and ...

'', ''

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

'' (as a young man plotting revenge in the episode "The Long Rope"), ''

77 Sunset Strip ''77 Sunset Strip'' is an American television Private investigator#PIs in fiction, private detective drama series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith (actor), Roger Smith, Richard Long (actor), Richard Long (fr ...

'', '' Hawaiian Eye'', ''

Surfside 6 ''Surfside 6'' is an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison (a character recycled ...

'', and '' The Roaring 20s'', in which he was cast from 1960 to 1962 in forty-two episodes in the recurring role of fictitious newspaper reporter Pat Garrison. One of his principal co-stars on ''The Roaring 20s'' was

Dorothy Provine Dorothy Michelle Provine (January 20, 1935 – April 25, 2010) was an American singer, dancer and actress. Born in 1935 in Deadwood, South Dakota, she grew up in Seattle, Washington, and was hired in 1958 by Warner Bros., after which she first ...

. In 1962, May made a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

in which he played a physician, Paul Larson, in the episode "County General" that was screened as an episode of ABC's drama series, ''

Bus Stop A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...

'', starring

Marilyn Maxwell Marvel Marilyn Maxwell (August 3, 1921 – March 20, 1972) was an American actress and entertainer. In a career that spanned the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared in several films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War ...

. That same year, he was cast as Major Thompson in "Any Second Now" of the ABC war drama, ''

Combat! ''Combat!'' is an American television drama series that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The exclamation point in ''Combat!'' was depicted on-screen as a stylized bayonet. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American sol ...

''. In 1964, he portrayed Thatcher in the three-part episode, " The Tenderfoot" of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

''. He was cast in 1964 in two other films, as Captain Anderson in '' A Tiger Walks'', and as Secret Service agent John O'Connor in ''

Kisses for My President ''Kisses for My President'' is a 1964 comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen. Leslie McCloud (Bergen) makes history when she is elected the first female president of the United States. However, her ...

'', with

Polly Bergen Polly Bergen (born Nellie Paulina Burgin; July 14, 1930 – September 20, 2014) was an American actress, singer, television host, writer and entrepreneur. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan in ''The Helen Mo ...

as the first woman

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

, with

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

as "First Husband." Two years later, May was cast as Edward White, Jr., with, again, Fred MacMurray in the lead, in the film about the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

, ''

Follow Me, Boys! ''Follow Me, Boys!'' is a 1966 American drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is an adaptation of the 1954 novel ''God and My Country'' by MacKinlay Kantor and was the final live action film produced by Walt Disney, who died two week ...

''. In 1965 May made another unsuccessful TV pilot ''Dream Wife'' as the husband of psychic

Shirley Jones Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as ''Oklahoma!'' (1955), ''Carousel'' (1956), and ''The M ...

. May subsequently guest starred on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

's '' Men into Space'', ''

Barnaby Jones ''Barnaby Jones'' is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law, who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was or ...

'', ''

The Dukes of Hazzard ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' is an American action comedy TV series that was aired on CBS from January 26, 1979 to February 8, 1985. The show aired for 147 episodes spanning seven seasons. It was consistently among the top-rated television series ...

'', ''

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

'', and ''

Falcon Crest ''Falcon Crest'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired for nine seasons on CBS from December 4, 1981, to May 17, 1990. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the California ...

''. He appeared on ABC's ''

Fantasy Island ''Fantasy Island'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. Gu ...

''. May was featured in several

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

s, including his role from 1967 to 1977 of crime busting lawyer, Adam Drake in ''

''. He played Grant Wheeler in 1981-1982 on the '' Another World'' spinoff ''

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

''. He also had recurring roles in ''

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

'' and ''

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...

''. May's last screen role was in 1993 as Andrew Laraby in the episode "Come Rain or Come Schein" on the NBC legal drama, ''

L.A. Law ''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...

''.

Personal life and death

From his first marriage to Ellen Cameron from 1951 until 1984, when they divorced. They had two sons. Cameron appeared on screen only once—in an episode of ABC's ''

Arrest and Trial ''Arrest and Trial'' is a 90-minute American Crime film, crime/legal drama series that ran during the 1963-64 United States network television schedule, 1963-1964 season on American Broadcasting Company, ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 pm North ...

''. After his divorce from Cameron, May was married to

Carla Borelli Carla Borelli (born October 12, 1942 in San Francisco, California) is an American actress. Borelli is one of five children born to parents who had been in the grocery business since the early 1930s. She was modeling as a baby and studied ballet ...

, an actress who also appeared in the television series ''Texas'' and ''Falcon Crest''. He died from laryngeal cancer at his home in

Kent, New York Kent is a town in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 12,900 at the 2020 census. The name is that of an early settler family. The town is in the north-central part of the Putnam County. Many of the lakes are reservoirs ...

, on January 28, 2022, at the age of 92.

References

External sources

*
Donald May
at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
Clips from ''Texas'' episodes
{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Donald 1929 births 2022 deaths American male television actors American male film actors American male soap opera actors Male actors from Chicago Male actors from Los Angeles Warner Bros. contract players American male stage actors University of Oklahoma alumni United States Navy officers Military personnel from Illinois Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from laryngeal cancer