David Victor; Producer of ‘Marcus Welby’

David Victor, an Emmy award-winning producer who was forced by the Depression to forsake his own interest in medicine and yet, with “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “Dr. Kildare” made house calls into millions of American homes, has died.

The Russian-born Victor was vacationing in Williamsburg, Va., when he died of a heart attack Wednesday. He was 79.

He had come to this country from Odessa as a boy of 13 with his widowed mother.

He told a Times writer in 1969, the year “Marcus Welby” began an eight-year run at the top of the television ratings, that he had to abandon his interest in medicine to help support his mother after the Depression hit.

But he did pursue an interest in Latin and literature. The quality of writing then permeating radio led him to think, “I can do better.”

He wrote scripts for such disparate shows as “Let George Do It,” a mystery-detective series, and “The Mel Blanc Show,” a situation comedy starring the late dialectician.

Victor moved to television as a writer and associate producer on “The Rebel” series and a 1957 feature film “Trooper Hook.”

He wrote episodes of “Daniel Boone,” “Rawhide” and “The Texan” before gravitating toward production.

He became producer of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” (and its spinoff “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E”), “Lucas Tanner,” “Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law” and “Women in White.”

He also did several TV films and miniseries including “The Woman I Love,” “Vanished” and “Little Women.”

His “Portrait: The Man Whose Name Was John,” which starred Raymond Burr as Pope John, won the International Silver Dove Award in Monte Carlo.

When “Dr. Kildare” went on the air in 1961, Victor was associate producer and eventually producer.

James Kildare was an intern who had first appeared in films. In the TV series, Victor tried unsuccessfully to move him from a hospital setting into private practice where “there was a much wider range for stories.”

He was overruled, however, because the show had proved so successful in its hospital format.

Victor decided then, he said, that his next television doctor would enjoy the latitude of a wider story line.

Thus, Robert Young as “Marcus Welby” was a general practitioner in Santa Monica.

One of the producer’s favorite stories was about the evening he and Young attended the 1970 Emmys where “Marcus Welby, M.D.” had received several nominations (winning three). Fans besieged Young for autographs and as the actor finally extricated himself from the crowd, one woman turned to Victor, who was off to the side, and asked, “Didn’t you used to be somebody?”

That became the title for his recently completed autobiography.

Services are scheduled at 10 a.m. today at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.

Survivors include his wife, Florence, who was with him when he died, a daughter, a son and four grandchildren, one of whom is a physician.