Film and Stage Career
Contracted to Universal Pictures where he was groomed as a virile, strapping, handsome leading man in the mold of Rock Hudson. Among his most famous roles are in A Time to Love and A Time To Die and Imitation of Life (1959) for director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter, both of whom had earlier helped make a star of Hudson. Gavin also appeared in the classic thriller Psycho (1960) for director Alfred Hitchcock, the epic Spartacus (1960) directed by Stanley Kubrick, and the 1920s-era Julie Andrews musical Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) for George Roy Hill, again for producer Ross Hunter. Each of those films was among the most successful box-office attractions of their year of release.
Gavin co-starred with such top leading ladies of the era as Doris Day in the 1960 thriller Midnight Lace, Sophia Loren the same year in the comedic A Breath of Scandal and, in 1961, with Susan Hayward in the melodrama Back Street and in Romanoff and Juliet and Tammy Tell Me True, both with Sandra Dee.
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