American actor and television executive, producer and director, who worked as an executive at CBS and also briefly recorded as a vocalist. Hickman portrayed Chuck MacDonald, Bob Collins’ girl-crazy teenaged nephew, in the 1950s The Bob Cummings Show and the title character in the 1960s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He was the younger brother of actor Darryl Hickman, with whom he has appeared on screen. In retirement, he devoted his time to painting.
He started as a child actor who, with his older brother Darryl, was driven by a stage mother. He did child roles in the ’40s, including Captain Eddy (1945) and The Boy With Green Hair starring Dean Stockwell in 1948. In the early ’50s, he became a regular on The Bob Cummings Show. His own series, Dobie Gillis, debuted in 1955 and ran for five years. After D.G. was cancelled, he did a few teen-oriented beach films in the late ’60s, and then retired from acting to run a Las Vegas public-relations firm.
By 1976, he had become a program executive for CBS. In November 1987, he produced and starred in Bring Me The Head of Dobie Gillis.
Hickman was married three times. His first two marriages, to Carol Christensen and Joanne Papile, ended in divorce. He and his third wife, Joan Roberts, were married until his death. Nine years after they married she produced, at age 37, their first child, Albert, on 27 November 1992. He paired with her to write his autobiography, Forever Dobie, that was released in 1994. He had two sons, from his first and third marriages.
Dwayne Hickman died from complications of Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles on 9 January 2022 at the age of 87.
Link to Wikipedia biography