Biography
McMullan was raised in Long Beach, Long Island during the 1950s, where he was constantly inventing, creating, and building. This passion led him to pursue studies in art, design, and architecture in college.
He began studying Industrial Design at New York University and Parsons School of Design for a year before transferring to the University of Kansas School of Architecture. Over five years, he immersed himself in the arts—covering design, sculpture, art history, and theatre. After a girlfriend encouraged him to play the lead in a college production of Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms," he dedicated much of his free time to honing his acting skills.
He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Kansas in 1961. On a whim, he visited Hollywood that same year to see a friend and, through a chance encounter with playwright William Inge, received a screen test for Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), with Peckinpah directing the test. Universal Pictures received the test and signed him to a seven-year contract, launching a successful 30-year film career. During his four years at Universal, he appeared in numerous TV pilots and played James Stewart’s son in the classic film Shenandoah (1965).
After departing Universal, he landed the co-lead opposite Vince Edwards for eight weeks on the series Ben Casey (1961). McMullan also took lead roles in several series, including Chopper One (1974), Beyond Westworld (1980), The Young and the Restless (1973), and notably had a recurring role as Senator Dowling on the popular nighttime soap Dallas (1978), lasting 18 weeks. In 1970, he co-starred alongside Robert Redford and Gene Hackman in Downhill Racer (1969).
Over more than four decades, he appeared in hundreds of TV shows, films, and commercials. His film credits include The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) and Extreme Close-Up (1973). He guest-starred in over 150 television programs, such as MacGyver (1985), Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), The F.B.I. (1965), The Rockford Files (1974), Hart to Hart (1979), The A-Team (1983), Nine to Five (1982), Stowaway to the Moon (1975), Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas (1977), Centennial (1978), and The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story (1988).
His career also extended into writing, with the release of the well-received coffee-table book "Actors As Artists," co-authored with Dick Gautier, which honors 77 stage and screen stars who are talented visual artists.
From 1998 to 2002 in France, he portrayed Buffalo Bill in the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show," a 1,000-seat dinner theater production near Disneyland Paris.
McMullan retired to a small town on the New Jersey shore with his wife, Helene, before illness led to his passing in California in 2019.
