Hugh o brian actor bio william
Hugh O’Brian, actor who played Wyatt Earp, dies at 91
Hugh O’Brian, who helped tame the Wild West as the star of TV’s “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” and was the founder of a long-running youth leadership development organization, has died. He was 91.
O’Brian, who had several health issues, died Monday morning with his wife nearby at their Beverly Hills home, his publicist Harlan Boll said.
Handsome, square-jawed and athletically fit, the dark-haired O’Brian appeared in a string of movies and TV anthology series in the years before he became a star portraying the real-life Old West peace officer on “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” which ran on ABC from 1955 to 1961.
TV’s first adult western, “Wyatt Earp” became a top 10-rated series and made O’Brian a household name.
Portraying what the show’s theme song described as the “brave, courageous and bold” frontier lawman, O’Brian wore a black frock coat, a gold brocade vest, a string tie and a flat-brimmed black hat — and he kept the peace with the help of a “Buntline Special”: a .45 revolver with an extra-long barrel.
I decided right then I didn’t want to go through life being known as Huge Krape, so I decided to take my mother’s family name, O’Brien. But they misspelled it.
— Hugh O’Brian
In portraying Earp, O’Brian became known for his fast draw.
“I didn’t want to force them into having to cut away whenever that happened; I wanted it to be realistic,” the actor said in a 2005 “Archive of American Television” interview.
He spent hundreds of hours practicing the quick draw, the result of which, he said, “became a very big promotional tool ... and everybody talked about the quick draw.”
During the series’ run, O’Brian received an Emmy nomination and became so identified with his dead-shot TV character that he did his best to keep the name O’Brian separated from Earp.
He did it by doing a lot of outside acting — on anthology series such as “Playhouse 90” and “Desilu Playhouse” — as well a
Hugh O'Brian had the term "beefcake" written about him during his nascent film years in the early 1950s, but he chose to avoid the obvious typecast as he set up his career.
O'Brian was born Hugh Charles Krampe on April 19, 1925, in Rochester, New York, to Ohio-born parents Edith Lillian (Marks) and Hugh John Krampe, a United States Marine Corps officer. His paternal grandparents were German immigrants, while his mother was of half German Jewish and half English/Scottish descent. O'Brian first attended school at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, then Kemper Military School in Booneville, Missouri. Moving from place to place growing up, he managed to show off his athletic prowess quite early. By the time he graduated from high school, he had lettered in football, basketball, wrestling and track. Originally pursuing law, he dropped out of the University of Cincinnati in 1942 (age 19) and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Upon his discharge he ended up in Los Angeles. Hugh joined a little theater group and a Santa Barbara stock company, where he developed his acting chops and slowly built up his résumé. He was discovered for TV by director/actress Ida Lupino, which opened the door to his signing with Universal Studios for films.
Hugh's gentlemanly ruggedness, similar to a James Garner or a Gene Barry, was ideal for pictures, and his lean physique and exceptionally photographic mug had the modest, brown-eyed, curly-haired looker plastered all over the movie magazines. He rebelled against the image for the most part and, as a result, his years with Universal were not as fruitful as they could have been. For the duration, he was pretty much confined as a secondary player to standard action pictures such as The Return of Jesse James (1950), The Cimarron Kid (1952), The Battle at Apache Pass (1952), Red Ball Express (1952), Son of Ali Baba (1952), The Lawless Breed (1952), Seminole (1953), Saskatchewan (1954) and Drums Across the River
filmography
FILM
Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone (1994) with Bruce Boxleitner
The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) with Kenny Rogers, Rick Rossovich, Claude Akins, Gene Barry, David Carradine, Doug McClure, Chuck Connors, Johnny Crawford, Linda Evans, and Brian Keith
Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990) with James Arness, Richard Kiley, and Joe Lara
Doin' Time on Planet Earth (1988) with Adam West, Candy Azzara, Gloria Hendry, Roddy McDowall, and Maureen Stapleton
Twins (1988) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Kelly Preston
The Seekers (1979) with Martin Milner, Robert Reed, Barbara Rush, Stuart Whitman, and John Carradine
Game of Death (1978) with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Gig Young
Cruise Into Terror (1978) with Dirk Benedict, John Forsythe, Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Lee Meriwether, Ray Milland, Stella Stevens, and Marshall Thompson
Murder at the World Series (1977) with Lynda Day George, Karen Valentine, Michael Parks, Janet Leigh, Nancy Kelly, Tamara Dobson, and Bruce Boxleitner
Fantasy Island (1977) with Ricardo Montalban, Bill Bixby, Sandra Dee, Peter Lawford, Carol Lynley, Victoria Principal, and Dick Sargent
Benny and Barney: Las Vegas Undercover (1977) with Jane Seymour, Jack Cassidy, Pat Harrington Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, Marty Allen, George Gobel, and Bobby Troup
The Shootist (1976) with John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Bill McKinney, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, and Sheree North
Killer Force (1975) with Telly Savalas, Peter Fonda, Christopher Lee, O.J. Simpson, and Maud Adams
Murder on Flight 502 (1975) with Ralph Bellamy, Polly Bergen, Dane Clark, Robert Stack, Sonny Bono, Laraine Day, Fernando Lamas, George Maharis, and Farrah Fawcett
Probe (1972) with Elke Sommer, John Gielgud, and Burgess Meredith
Harpy (1971) with Elizabeth Ashley
Wild Women (1970) with Anne Francis, Marilyn Maxwell, Hugh O'Brian filmography
Year Title Role Notes 1949 Oboler Comedy Theatre — Series, episode: "Dog's Eye View". 1950 Fireside Theater — Anthology, 4 episodes (1950-51). 1954 Hallmark Hall of Fame Starbuck Anthology, episode: "Moby Dick". Letter to Loretta Various Anthology, 4 episodes (1954-55). Studio 57 Giff Dillard Anthology, 2 episodes (1954-55). 1955 The Millionaire Luke Fortune Anthology, episode: "The Luke Fortune Story". Stage 7 Billy the Kid Anthology, episode: "Billy and the Bride"; credited as O'Brien. Damon Runyon Theater Packy Anthology, episode: "A Light in France". The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp Wyatt Earp Series, 227 episodes (1955-61).
Nominated—Primetime Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series. Celebrity Playhouse — Series, episode: "A Very Big Man". 1956 Make Room for Daddy Wyatt Earp Sitcom, episode: "Wyatt Earp Visits the Williamses". The Star and the Story Hank Bartlett Anthology, episode: "Arab Duel". Matinee Theater — Anthology, episode: "Tall, Dark Stranger". 1957 The Ford Television Theatre Matty Curran Anthology, episode: "Ringside Seat". Playhouse 90 Various Anthology, 2 episodes (1957-58). The Christophers — Series, episode: "As You Make It". Date with the Angels Himself Sitcom, episode: "Star Struck"; credited as O'Brien. 1959 Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Various Anthology, 2 episodes (1959-60). 1960 The Secret World of Eddie Hodges Wyatt Earp Musical General Electric Theater Sam Sharp Anthology, episode: "The Graduation Dress". 1961 Sunday Showcase John Honeyman Anthology, episode: "Our American Heritage: The Secret Rebel". The Play of the Week — Anthology, episode: "The Wingless Victory". Feathertop Feathertop Musical The Dick Powell Show Jack Farmer Anthology, Hugh o'brian movies
Hugh O'Brian filmography
Nominated—Primetime Emmy for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series.