Hollywood Flashback: Mannix Star Gail Fisher Wrote an Emmy in 1970

Why Gail Fisher isn’t better known in the annals of Hollywood history is a mystery even Joe Mannix can’t solve. Fisher was only the second black actor to appear in a prominent role on weekly television, after Nichols Nichols. ᲕThe way of the stars. And he was the first to win an Emmy and not a two Golden Globe Awards.

The New Jersey actor began his acting studies with Lee Strasberg in New York and eventually became a member of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre. In the 1960s, he became the first black actor “to shoot a national television commercial, on camera, in lines”, as he once explained when he was involved in a detergent campaign. But his big break came in the second season of the CBS series. manixWhen the star detective (Mike Connors) forms his own private detective firm and hires Fisher’s character, Peggy Fair, to be his Girl Friday.

The wrestling show became a hit thanks to their chemistry. When he landed the lead role for an Emmy in the 1970s drama series, the first time this award was presented, wearing a jumpsuit of silver and white threads, a genuinely surprised and delighted Fisher exclaimed, “Wow! “It goes without saying that this is a very emotional and emotional time for me.”

Later manixIn 1975, Fischer appeared sporadically on television, but struggled with addiction. He died of kidney failure in Los Angeles in 2000. He was 65 years old.

The story first appeared in a separate June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.