‘Love Boat’ captain dies at 90

Gavin MacLeod, the veteran supporting actor who achieved fame as sardonic TV news writer Murray Slaughter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and stardom playing cheerful Capt. Stubing on "The Love Boat," has died. He was 90.

MacLeod died early on May 29 at his home in Palm Desert, California, said Stephanie Steele Zalin, his stepdaughter. She attributed his death to his age, saying he had been well until very recently.

"He had one of the most amazing, fun blasts of a life of anybody I know. He enjoyed every minute of it," Steele Zalin said. "I don't even think in his wildest dreams he dreamt of the life that he ended up having and creating."

She called him the "best, sweetest, purest guy."

Ed Asner, who played opposite MacLeod on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," said on Twitter that "my heart is broken. Gavin was my brother, my partner in crime (and food) and my comic conspirator."

Known to sitcom fans for his bald head and wide smile, MacLeod toiled in near anonymity for more than a decade, appearing on dozens of TV shows and in several movies before landing the part of Murray in 1970.

He had originally tested for Moore's TV boss, Lou Grant, the role that went to Asner. Realizing he wasn't right for playing the blustery, short-tempered TV newsroom leader, MacLeod asked if he could try instead for the wisecracking TV news writer, his jokes often at the expense of the dimwitted anchorman Ted Baxter.

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was a smash from the start and remains a classic of situation comedies. It produced two spinoffs, "Rhoda" and "Phyllis," starring Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman, respectively, who had portrayed Mary's neighbors.

It was still top-rated when Moore, who played news producer Mary Richards,...