Michael Gray, who starred on the 1970s Saturday morning kids show Shazam! as Billy Batson, the teenager who in a puff of smoke turns into the superhero Captain Marvel, died Friday in Palm Desert of natural causes, a family spokesperson announced.

Gray frequently graced the covers of Tiger Beat and other popular teen magazines as he landed his first series gig as a student doctor named Ronnie Collins on the first season of the 1972-74 NBC sitcom The Little People, starring Brian Keith and Shelley Fabares.

Gray's Batson had but to yell one word -  shazam  - to be transformed into Captain Marvel (played by Jackson Bostwick and then John Davey) on the live-action CBS show that aired for three seasons (1974-76).

 I remember when we were experimenting with the change from Billy to Captain Marvel, using a sort of flash device, and poof - the smoke would clear and I was a little singed,  Gray recalled in an interview with Comic Book Resources.  They changed that real quick. That definitely didn't work. 

Gray then had a cameo in Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), where he interacted with Zachary Levi's Captain Marvel in a nod to the original series.

Michael Gray with John Davey in a promotional photo for  Shazam!' Everett Collection

Born in Chicago on Sept. 2, 1951, Gray was raised in Miami Beach before he headed to Hollywood, where he studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.

He made his onscreen debut on a 1969 episode of Room 222, then showed up on The Flying Nun, Marcus Welby, M.D. and The Brady Bunch, where he played Marcia's boyfriend on a 1973 installment (when she's working in the local ice cream shop).

He also appeared in 1970 with Burt Reynolds in the ABC telefilm Run, Simon, Run and in the features Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Myra Breckinridge.

Meanwhile, Gray's manager, Tiger Beat publisher Charles Laufer, was keeping him in the spotlight until Shazam! came along.

 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,  Gray once said during a Comic-Con panel
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