Thomas Mercein Runyon

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Thomas Mercein Runyon, founder of the Old Place, died of cancer July 17 at his Malibu home. He was 89 years old.

Born April 27, 1920, in Washington, D.C., Runyon moved to Hollywood with his family at the age of three.

After his father died when Runyon was seven, the family moved to Brentwood. Runyon spent most of his high school years at Cate, a boarding school in Carpinteria.

He joined the Army Air Forces during World War II and rose to the rank of major, flying cargo missions in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he studied writing at Columbia University and wrote fiction for Argosy magazine.

Runyon then returned to California and married his wife Barbara in 1961. The couple eventually moved to the home on the west end of Malibu that Runyon’s mother Cornelia had built in 1937. They then opened the Old Place, a restaurant-saloon in Agoura, in 1969.

Actress Ali MacGraw used to frequent the Old Place with actor Steve McQueen in the 1970s when they were married and living in Trancas Canyon. Other notables who frequented the restaurant included actor Robert Mitchum, singer Bob Dylan, director Sam Peckinpah and Ronald and Nancy Reagan when they owned a nearby ranch.

In addition to his wife, Runyon is survived by a daughter, Alessandra, an artist, of Santa Fe, NM; son Morgan, an art director of commercials and music videos, of Topanga Canyon and Malibu; and three grandchildren.