Wayne Maunder, Star of 1960s Westerns "Custer" and "Lancer", Dies at 80

[JamesG]

Wayne Maunder, Star of 1960s Westerns "Custer" and "Lancer", Dies at 80
11/21/2018
by Mike Barnes


Wayne Maunder, who starred on the TV Westerns "Custer" and "Lancer" in the 1960s, has died. He was 80.

Maunder died unexpectedly Nov. 11 in his home in Brattleboro, Vt., a spokesman for the state's Department of Health confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The actor had a history of heart disease.




The handsome Maunder wore his blond hair long to play Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer (in the days before Little Bighorn) on "Custer", a 1967 ABC action drama that lasted just 17 episodes.

(Footage was later edited into a feature called The Legend of Custer)




On "Lancer", a CBS Western that ran for two seasons from September 1968 to June 1970, Maunder portrayed Scott Lancer, the Boston-educated older son of Murdoch Lancer (Andrew Duggan) and half-brother of gunslinger Johnny Madrid Lancer (James Stacy). The boys, who had different mothers and had never met, come to California's San Joaquin Valley to assist their father on his sprawling ranch.

Both shows were created by Western writer Samuel A. Peeples at 20th Century Fox Television.




Maunder then played Sgt. Sam MacCray opposite Mitchell Ryan on the 1973-74 NBC drama "Chase", a show about undercover L.A. cops co-created by Stephen J. Cannell.

Maunder also appeared on such shows as "Kung Fu", "The FBI", "The Rookies", "Police Story", "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Barnaby Jones" and in the features The Seven Minutes (1971), directed by Russ Meyer, and Porky's (1981), where he played a racist motorcyclist who gets into a fight with his son in his final onscreen role.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...was-80-1162237