Billy Gray(I)

In July 1998 he settled a libel suit he brought against noted film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, known for his annual guides on available movies and videos. In all guides from 1974-98, Maltin mistakenly listed Gray as a real-life drug addict and pusher in the critique of Dusty and Sweets McGee (1971); he appeared in the film only as an actor. Part of the settlement required that Maltin publicly apologize for the 27-year long defamation of character. He did so during a press conference on the morning of July 18, 1998.

[in 1983, on his Father Knows Best (1954) years] I wish there was some way I could tell kids not to believe it--the dialogue, the situations, the characters--they were all totally false. The show did everybody a disservice. The girls were always trained to use their feminine wiles, to pretend to be helpless to attract men. The show contributed to a lot of the problems between men and women that we see today . . . I think we were all well motivated, but what we did was run a hoax. Father Knows Best (1954) purported to be a reasonable facsimile of life. And the bad thing is that the model is so deceitful. It usually revolved around not wanting to tell the truth, either out of embarrassment or not wanting to hurt someone . . . If I could say anything to make up for all the years I lent myself to that kind of bullshit, it would be: "YOU Know Best".