Stage and Television Star Joe Maross Dies at 86

Actor Joe Maross, whose career as a performer spanned over forty years beginning with early live television, died this weekend on November 7 of natural causes in Barnsboro Pennsylvania. He was 86.

Maross was a former marine who served in WWII in Hawaii.  He went on to graduate from Yale University with a degree in theater arts. 

Maross got his start On the Rialto, appearing on Broadway in Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath, and The Inkeepers. He was a regular on television in its earliest days, with a role in Lux Video Theater in 1952, followed by appearances in Philco Playhouse, Kraft Television Theater, The United States Steel Hour and Studio One.

Among the movies he appeared in were Run Silent, Run Deep and Elmer Gantry. The many television series he guest-starred in include Behind Closed Doors, Mission: Impossible, The Fugitive, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five O, Perry Mason, Charlies Angels, Dallas, and Murder She Wrote, among others. 

He was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a founding member of the Los Angeles based acting, writing and directing group "Projects 58." 

Maross is survived by a son.