Maurice Tarplin

{{Short description|Novelist and radio actor (1911–1975)}} {{More citations needed |date=October 2021}} {{Infobox person | name =  | image = Mtarplin.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = April 1, 1911 | birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts | death_date = May 12, 1975, age 64 | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Actor, novelist | alma_mater = | spouse = Catharine Selby Flygare Tarplin (1933–?)<br>Grace Tarplin | children = 2 | parents = | known_for = Acting on radio }} '''Maurice Tarplin''' (April 1, 1911, Boston, Massachusetts – May 12, 1975) was an American novelist and a radio actor best known as the narrator of ''The Mysterious Traveler'', employing a voice once described as "eerily sardonic."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KHIYAAAAIAAJ&q=%22maurice+tarplin%22 Sullivan, Jack. ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural''. New York: Viking, 1986]</ref>

==Radio== Tarplin was a familiar voice as Dr. Weird on ''The Strange Dr. Weird'' and Inspector Faraday on ''Boston Blackie''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Frederic W. Ziv Co.|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-05-24.pdf|access-date=23 December 2015|agency=Billboard|date=May 24, 1947|page=9}}</ref> He was heard on numerous other shows, including ''Valiant Lady'',<ref name="buxton">Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). ''The Big Broadcast: 1920–1950''. The Viking Press. {{ISBN|0-670-16240-X}}. p. 249.</ref> ''The Shadow'', ''Theater Five'', ''The March of Time'' (as Winston Churchill),<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060712092134/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/time.htm "The March Toward War"]</ref> ''Gangbusters''<ref>{{cite news|title=Radio Talent: New York|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1942/Billboard%201942-01-10.pdf|access-date=11 March 2015|agency=Billboard|date=January 10, 1942|page=9}}</ref> and various soap operas. He played Los Angeles District Attorney Richard Hanley on ''The Guiding Light''. On ''Myrt and Marge'' he played Barnie Belzer, and he was in several episodes of ''Tom Corbett, Space Cadet''. He once voiced Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in the series ''Murder Clinic''.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Tragedy at Marsden Manor |series=Murder Clinic |date=June 10, 1942 |access-date=1 November 2024|url=https://archive.org/details/Murder_Clinic/Murder_Clinic-42-10-06_012_Tragedy_At_Marsden_Manor.mp3|network=Mutual Broadcasting System |season=1 |number=5 |last= |first=}}</ref>

==Writing== Tarplin's novel, ''Seven Casks of Death'', was published in the June 1948 issue of ''Dime Mystery Magazine''.

==Television and film== In later years, Tarplin did voiceovers for TV commercials and worked on the English language soundtracks for foreign films.

==Personal life== Tarplin was married to Grace Tarplin and had two boys.

His first marriage was to Catharine Selby Flygare in 1933. This marriage produced no children and ended during World War II. She died in 2010 at the age of 100.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Listen to== *[https://archive.org/details/strangedoctorweird ''The Strange Dr. Weird'' (28 1944–45 episodes)]

==External links== * [http://www.mysteryfile.com/M_Clinic.html "''Murder Clinic'': Radio’s Golden Age of Detection"] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060712092134/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/time.htm "Time Marches – on Radio!"]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarplin, Maurice}} Category:American male radio actors Category:1975 deaths Category:1911 births Category:20th-century American male actors