Stuart Margolin, who played Angel on ‘The Rockford Files,’ dies
Stuart Margolin, a character actor best known as ex-con Angel Martin on The Rockford Files, died Monday. He was 82.
Margolin, the son of a Dallas lighting wholesaler, was raised in Dallas and attended private school after being expelled from several public schools, including Hillcrest High School in 1955.
Actor Max Martini, Margolin’s stepson, announced his father’s death on Instagram. Director Christopher Martini, another stepson, told The Hollywood Reporter that his father died of natural causes in Staunton, Va.
Margolin met his wife, Pat, in a Dallas juvenile court where she was serving as a student judge in a peer-justice program. Margolin came to court with the “biggest file of traffic violations I’d ever handled,” she told The Dallas Morning News in 1987.
She referred his case to Dallas police. Margolin then landed in an institution he described as “a kind of holding pen for juvenile delinquents, emotionally disturbed youth, and kids who couldn’t pass elsewhere.”
Margolin straightened up and went on to study acting in New York, eventually graduating from high school in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Margolin had a deep portfolio as an actor and director in television and movies. He starred with Julie Andrews in Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. (1981) and Charles Bronson in The Stone Killer (1973). He also appeared in Death Wish (1974), Kelly’s Heroes (1970) and many more titles.
He directed episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Wonder Woman;, Touched by an Angel, The Love Boat; Magnum, P.I., Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap and The Rockford Files. He also came to Dallas in 1987 for Paramedics, his directorial debut.
The return sparked memories for Margolin.
“Things change so much,” he told The News. “Physically, I miss not seeing things. I miss seeing the Flying Red Horse [once the highest point in downtown Dallas]. I think they ought to put it on top of the green building.”
He won Emmy Awards in 1979 and 1980 as best supporting actor in a drama series for his portrayal of Angel, a former cellmate of Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files.
“I confess I’ve never understood why Rockford likes Angel so much because he’s rotten to the core,” James Garner wrote in his 2011 memoir. “But there’s something lovable about him. I don’t know what it is, but it’s all Stuart’s doing.”