Handsome leading man Richard Chamberlain, who came to prominence in the 1960s medical series “Dr. Kildare” and then became king of the miniseries with such ratings blockbusters as “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds,” has died. He was 90.
Chamberlain’s death was confirmed to Variety by publicist Harlan Boll. The actor died Saturday, March 29 in Waimanalo, Hawai’i, of complications following a stroke, according to Boll.
“Our beloved Richard is with the angels now,” Martin Rabbett, Chamberlain’s longtime partner, said in a statement. “He is free and soaring to those loved ones before us. How blessed were we to have known such an amazing and loving soul. Love never dies. And our love is under his wings lifting him to his next great adventure.”
Chamberlain’s All-American matinee idol looks stood in the way of his acting career at times until he proved himself onstage in a highly lauded production of “Hamlet” and other Shakespearean turns. It was not enough, however, to propel him to a major big-screen career. He starred in several notable films including “Petulia,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Music Lovers” and Peter Weir’s “The Last Wave.” But his forte continued to be the small screen, where he played everyone from England’s Edward VIII and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald to World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg.
During his years as Dr. Kildare, Chamberlain also enjoyed brief success as a recording artist, mostly romantic ballads. He also used his vocal abilities on TV variety shows and onstage, most notably in the 1993 Broadway revival of “My Fair Lady.”
But he is best remembered as the ambitious Australian priest in the high-rated TV miniseries adaptation of Colleen McCullough’s weighty romance novel “The Thorn Birds.”
“Shogun,” based on James Clavell’s novel, was also a strong miniseries vehicle for Chamberlain in 1980. In the wake of these successes, he commanded top dollar for his television services through to 1996’s sequel to “The Thorn Birds,” titled “The Missing Years.”
MGM put the young Chamberlain under contract in the early 1960s and assigned him the role of Dr. Kildare, based on the popular film series that had starred Lew Ayres. The hourlong medical drama, co-starring Raymond Massey, debuted in fall 1961 and was an immediate hit, running through 1966.
Chamberlain’s tall, clean-cut good looks and easy manner made him an instant idol. He used his status to segue into a minor recording career with the 1962 release of “Richard Chamberlain Sings” and later “The Theme From Dr. Kildare.” He also appeared on the soundtracks of “Twilight of Honor” and “Joy in the Morning,” two MGM soap opera features in which he starred during the early ’60s.
Soon after “Dr. Kildare” ended its run, Chamberlain struck out in different directions. He resumed his acting studies and landed a lead role in the Broadway musical drama “Holly Golightly,” based on Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but it closed before it opened.
For a time he moved to England and continued his studies, making his debut in the title role of “Hamlet” in 1970 at the Birmingham Rep to surprisingly good notices; he was the first American to attempt the troubled Dane on British soil since John Barrymore four decades previous. Chamberlain later transferred the performance to television. He also tackled other theatrical challenges such as Richard II, Cyrano de Bergerac, Tennessee Williams’ “The Night of the Iguana” and Thomas Babe’s “Fathers and Sons,” drawing Drama Desk nominations for the latter two. During the late ’60s he also starred in a BBC adaptation of “The Portrait of a Lady” and for director Richard Lester in the film classic “Petulia” with Julie Christie and George C. Scott.
Also in England he played Tchaikovsky in Ken Russell’s overheated feature biography “The Music Lovers.” In 1973 he landed the role of Lord Byron in a feature production of “Lady Caroline Lamb,” and Lester cast him as Aramis in “The Three Musketeers”; Chamberlain would later appear in the film’s two sequels.
Also in the mid-’70s, Peter Weir cast Chamberlain in his hallucinatory and apocalyptic “The Last Wave,” and the actor was among the all-star lineup of hit disaster epic “The Towering Inferno.” He also appeared in disaster film “The Swarm” and Cinderella tale “The Slipper and the Rose.”
Thanks to his continuing appeal to TV audiences, he copped the starring role in “The Woman I Love” (playing King Edward VIII opposite Faye Dunaway’s Wallis Simpson). This 1972 biodrama, which aired on ABC just a few months after Edward’s death, was so controversial that it was banned in the U.K. In the mid-’70s Chamberlain toplined a series of popular television movies: “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last of the Belles” and “The Man in the Iron Mask,” scoring his first Emmy nomination for “Monte Cristo.”
In 1978 he starred in a PBS adaptation of Neil Simon’s Chekhovian comedy “The Good Doctor” and was one of the leads in NBC’s epic miniseries “Centennial.”
NBC’s taboo-breaking historical miniseries “Shogun,” in which Chamberlain starred in 1980, was one of the highest-rated programs in the network’s history. The show won an Emmy for outstanding limited series and a nomination for the actor; Chamberlain won a Golden Globe for best actor in a television drama for “Shogun.”
His success with “Shogun” led to starring roles in weightier fare including “Cook and Peary: The Race to the Pole,” “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (another Emmy nom), “Night of the Hunter” and “Casanova.” There was also a 1988 ABC miniseries version of “The Bourne Identity” in which Chamberlain played Jason Bourne. But none of these efforts could compete with 1983’s scandalous “The Thorn Birds,” in which Chamberlain played a priest who has an affair with a beautiful woman. Despite or because of the controversy, “The Thorn Birds” became what was then the second highest rated miniseries in history after “Roots,” and Chamberlain collected another Emmy nom and won a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or motion picture for TV.
The miniseries briefly revived Chamberlain’s movie career: He starred in a remake of “King Solomon’s Mines” and sequel “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.” But mostly he worked in TV thereafter with such high-gloss productions as “The Lost Daughter,” “Ordeal of the Arctic,” “All the Winters That Have Been” and 1999’s “Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke,” in which he starred with Lauren Bacall. There was also the ill-advised 1996 “Thorn Birds” sequel “The Missing Years.”
Chamberlain also worked frequently onstage, returning to Broadway for a 1987 revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit”; toured in “My Fair Lady” as Henry Higgins and landed on Broadway with that 1993 revival; and was a substitute as Captain Von Trapp in a Rialto revival of “The Sound of Music,” with the musical subsequently touring. In addition he toured in 2005 in the title role of “Scrooge: The Musical” and in 2008 and 2009 as King Arthur in “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”
In the late ’80s he moved to Hawai’i and, except to return to the mainland for work, mostly lived there and painted. He starred as a doctor again in “Island Son,” a brief 1989-90 series that was shot in Hawai’i and was his idea.
During the 2000s the actor guested on a variety of TV shows, including “Touched by an Angel,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Will and Grace,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Desperate Housewives.” He also had a recurring role on ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters.” The actor appeared in supporting roles in several films during the period including “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.”
In the spring of 2012 Chamberlain appeared as Dr. Sloper in the play “The Heiress” at the Pasadena Playhouse, and that summer he starred with Brooke Shields in a stage adaptation of “The Exorcist” at the Geffen Playhouse. In 2014 he appeared Off Broadway in a revival of David Rabe’s 1971 play “Sticks and Bones.” The New York Times said Chamberlain “has only about 20 minutes of stage time, but it’s long enough to make a strong impact — in his New York Times review, Ben Brantley noted Mr. Chamberlain’s ‘wonderfully unctuous performance.’”
In 2017, Chamberlain appeared in an episode of David Lynch’s revival of “Twin Peaks” as Bill Kennedy. He portrayed Dr. Leener in horror film “Nightmare Cinema” (2018) and had a part in 2019 film “Finding Julia.” He was also featured in one scene in the 2021 drama “Echoes of the Past,” which he filmed in Patmos, Greece, alongside Max von Sydow.
Born George Richard Chamberlain in Los Angeles on March 31, 1934, he attended Beverly Hills High and later Pomona College, where he graduated with a degree in art. After a two-year stint in the Army, stationed in Korea in the mid-’50s, Chamberlain returned to Los Angeles, where he studied acting and guest starred on such TV series as “Bourbon Street,” “Mr. Lucky,” “Thriller,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Gunsmoke.”
He made his feature debut in a 1960 horror cheapie, “Secret of the Purple Reef.” His first major studio film was MGM’s “A Thunder of Drums.” Through a former high school classmate, George Le Maire, he was tested for an MGM TV series, “The Paradise Kid.” He got the part but the series idea was scrapped. Soon, however, came an MGM contract and “Dr. Kildare.”
Chamberlain’s autobiography, “Shattered Love: A Memoir,” was published in 2003. In addition to his acting, singing and painting, Chamberlain championed ecological causes including lobbying in Sacramento, California, and Washington, D.C., to save the Tuolumne River, which originates in Yosemite National Park in California. His efforts helped put the river under the protection of the U.S.’s National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Chamberlain spent decades in a relationship with actor-writer-producer Martin Rabbett, with whom he appeared in “Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold,” but it was unclear whether they remained together after Chamberlain had returned to Los Angeles in 2010. According to Boll, Rabbett was Chamberlain’s “lifelong partner and best friend.”
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