Shelly Novack

An athlete turned actor, Shelly Novack enjoyed success both on the field and onscreen. After excelling as a football player in college, Novack was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in 1966, and played for two seasons as a wide receiver. When he met a TV producer during the offseason of 1968, his acting career was launched with a role on a football-themed episode of "Hallmark Hall of Fame." Novack never achieved huge celebrity as an actor, though he was certainly not an unknown. He appeared frequently in prominent TV series as a guest star, including the Westerns "The Virginian" and "Gunsmoke," during the late '60s and early '70s. Novack scored a supporting role in the 1969 frontier drama "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here," starring Robert Redford, one of his few sojourns into feature films. Although mainly a guest actor, Novack did hold a few recurring roles, notably on the long-running crime drama "The F.B.I.," as Agent Chris Daniels, for two seasons. This led to a part as Sergeant Charlie Benson in the cop series "Most Wanted," co-starring with Robert Stack. The show didn't catch on, however, and was pulled after 22 episodes. During the late 1970s, Novack began racing cars, and was poised for a successful career as a driver as well as an actor before he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1978, shortly after the premiere of his final film, "Love's Dark Ride."