Movie star became ambassador to Mexico
LOS ANGELES — John Gavin, the tall, strikingly handsome actor who appeared in Spartacus, Psycho and other hit films of the 1960s before forsaking acting to become U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to Mexico, has died at age 86.
Gavin, who was also a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, died Friday, said Brad Burton Moss, manager of Gavin’s wife, actress Constance Towers. Moss did not disclose the cause of death.
After appearances in a handful of 1950s B-movies, Gavin’s breakthrough came in 1958 when he landed the lead role of a Second World War German soldier in A Time to Love and a Time to Die.
Despite lukewarm reviews, Universal didn’t lose faith, however, starring him opposite Lana Turner in a remake of the soap opera Imitation of Life the following year. Then came the role of Janet Leigh’s divorced lover, Sam Loomis, in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho.
Gavin’s performance, though, was overshadowed by those of Leigh as the tentative, frightened thief who steals $40,000 to keep their romance together and by Anthony Perkins as the psychotic owner of the Bates Motel where she seeks shelter on her way to meet her lover.
Gavin went on to make a flurry of films over the next two years, playing Julius Caesar in Spartacus, appearing opposite Susan Hayward in Back Street, opposite Sandra Dee in Peter Ustinov’s Shakespearian spoof Romanoff and Juliet and again with Dee in Tammy Tell Me True.
His career began to wane by the end of the 1960s and a minor role in the 1967 musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, starring Julie Andrews, marked the end of his association with Universal.
He made a few other films and appeared on such TV shows as Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, but he was already on the road to another profession, diplomacy.
Reagan appointed Gavin as Mexico’s ambassador in 1981. It was a country he already had ties with. His father had invested in the country’s mines, and ancestors of his Mexican-born mother had been among California’s first Spanish settlers. Gavin had often visited Mexico in his youth and was fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
When Reagan appointed Gavin ambassador, he cited the political turbulence in Latin America and quipped: “If you’re not attacked at least once a month, I’ll feel you’re not doing your job.”