Character History
Tod was born March 12, 1936, in New York City at 4:30 AM, and raised in Rye (although he gives his birthplace as Connecticut on at least one occasion; his driver's license states that his hometown is Rye, New York), the son of Lee and Martha Stiles. His father was the owner of a shipping company in New York City. In 1960, shortly after Tod's graduation from Yale University, the elder Stiles suffered a series of business misfortunes that left him bankrupt. He then died of a coronary thrombosis, leaving Tod an inheritance consisting of little more than a brand new convertible Chevrolet Corvette. With his future now in his own hands, Tod and his best friend Buz Murdock (George Maharis), an ex-gang member whom Tod's father had taken under his wing, decided to hit the road in the new car, traveling across America to seek their fortune in a variety of different jobs.
After more than two years of adventuring on the road, Buz became seriously ill and was unable to travel with Tod any longer. Tod traveled by himself for a while, and then while working in Houston he encountered ex-Army Ranger and P.O.W. Lincoln Case (Glenn Corbett), who had just returned from a stint in Vietnam. Although circumstances of their first meeting initially drew Tod and Linc into conflict (including a fistfight), the two soon became fast friends and Linc became his new traveling partner.
After a year or so more of hopping around the country with Linc, Tod met Margo Tiffin (played by Barbara Eden), whose father Alexander had previously known Tod, in Tampa (where the episode was filmed). Mr. Tiffin had been so enamored of Tod that he left a stipulation in his will that required his daughter to marry him. Despite the forced circumstances of the relationship, Tod and Margo did indeed end up actually falling in love with each other and were married. After having to spend some time fending off the efforts of unscrupulous family members to claim Margo's father's fortune, Tod and his new bride determined to settle down, ending both Tod's nomadic lifestyle and the series. This occurred during the two-part series finale of Route 66, both episodes of which aired in March 1964.
Read more about this topic: Tod Stiles
Famous quotes containing the words character and/or history:
“The first thing to be done by a biographer in estimating character is to examine the stubs of his victim’s cheque-books.”
—Silas Weir Mitchell (1829–1914)
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)