Actor Michael Gray, who played Billy Batson in Shazam!, died at the age of 75 on Friday, October 16. Per TV Line, his publicist announced the sad news on October 22, revealing that Gray died of natural causes.
Even though he was best known for his role in the classic 1970s CBS superhero series, Gray got his big break as Ronnie Collins in NBC’s The Little People. Created by Hollywood legend Garry Marshall and starring Shelley Fabares and Brian Keith, the show followed a pediatrician who ran a free medical clinic in Hawaii. Gray appeared in 10 episodes from 1972 to 1973. The following year, the series was renamed The Brian Keith Show.
While The Little People was Gray’s first major TV role, it wasn’t his small-screen debut. The actor had guest-starring roles on Room 222 (1969), The Flying Nun (1970), and Marcus Welby, M.D. (1970). Following his stint on The Little People, Gray went on to guest-star on The Brady Bunch as Marcia’s boyfriend and on Our Time before landing the lead role of Billy Batson in Shazam!
Inspired by the DC Comics character, Gray could magically transform into Captain Marvel by saying the word “Shazam!” Jackson Bostwick (and later John Davey) played Batson’s superhero alter-ego.
Michael Gray. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty ImagesMichael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
According to People, Gray once said, “I didn’t know the character or the story when I was initially cast, so I had to be a quick study. So it was fun and exhausting, challenging and thrilling, all at once.”
In 2023, during an appearance on the “Pop Culture Retro” podcast, Gray revealed what it was like to be a ‘70s heartthrob with his face splashed across teen magazines. “It was fun sometimes, and sometimes it wasn’t. For example, so many kids read it; a lot of them found out where I lived. I don’t know how they found that out. So there were times I lived in a security building in West Hollywood. They had security agents downstairs in the lobby and sometimes they would call my apartment upstairs and say, ‘Michael, don’t come downstairs, there’s dozens of kids waiting in the driveway to see you.’ So I said, ‘okay’ and didn’t go downstairs.”
He went on to detail a time when he went to see Donny Osmond play live and as he walked to his seat, “So many kids saw me and started running up screaming, ‘There is Michael Gray.’ They started grabbing my clothes, pulling off my shirt, trying to pull pieces of my hair out of my head.”
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