R.I.P. Michael Gray, Billy Batson of CBS' Shazam!

Previously, Gray starred in bit roles on TV series such as Marcus Welby, M.D. and The Flying Nun, and made his first splash as the student doctor Ronnie Collins on The Little People (later renamed The Brian Keith Show), sharing an on-screen kiss with actor Shelley Fabares. His growing popularity throughout the early Seventies landed him on the cover of Tiger Beat (his manager, Charles Laufer, published the teen magazine) and led to appearances on American Bandstand and The Brady Bunch (guest-starring as “Jeff” in the episode “Marcia Gets Creamed”). But it was Gray’s starring role in CBS’s Shazam! that thrust him into stardom. The role eventually made Gray a regular at fan and comic conventions, where he often spoke about his time as one of DC Comics’ first TV superheroes. 

“I didn’t know how much I would like [the role] until years later when I found out how much of an influence my character was, and the show was, in people’s lives. I had no clue,” Gray told Fanboy Planet in 2012. “There were such good moral values to the show, and I meet people today, last week, this morning, who say, ‘You have no idea what you did for me as a child. You helped me get through life.’ […] And that’s a nice feeling. I didn’t know the show had that much strength and power back then.”

After stepping away from acting in the 70s due to fears of being typecast, Gray opened a flower shop with his wife, Stacy Benon Gray, who survives him along with his stepchildren. Years later, Gray appeared as himself in cameos across pop culture, voicing a version of himself (“TV’s Michael Gray”) in FX’s adult-animated Archer and appearing in Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men. Gray later made a cameo in Robert F. Sandburg’s 2023 sequel, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, starring Zachary Levi as the superhero and Asher Angel in the role Gray played nearly fifty years earlier. Seen wearing a red-and-yellow long-sleeved shirt, Gray cheered on the latest iteration of the superhero that came to define his career. “You’re the best, Captain Marvel!’ he exclaimed.