Darren McGavin (born May 7, 1922), is an actor who first appeared in the movie A Song to Remember (1945) and moved on to a wide variety of TV and movie roles. Over the course of his career this veteran actor has starred in seven different TV series and guest-starred in many more.
McGavin is probably best known for his role of “The Old Man” in the classic Christmas movie A Christmas Story (1983). He has won one ACE award (for the 1991 TV movie Clara) and received an Emmy nomination as an Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series on the comedy series Murphy Brown. Other memorable roles include reporter Carl Kolchak in the TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) and Mike Hammer in the TV series Mike Hammer (1957).
Kolchak was the inspiration for the successful 1993 series The X-Files, and - because of this - McGavin was asked to play the role of Arthur Dales, the man who started the X-Files, in three episodes. Season 5’s Travelers, and two episodes from Season 6: Agua Mala and The Unnatural. Sadly, failing health forced him to withdraw from the latter, and the script - written and directed by series star David Duchovny - was rewritten to feature M. Emmet Walsh as Dales’ brother, also called Arthur.