Hugh O'Brian
Encyclopedia
Hugh O'Brian is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor, known for his starring role in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a Western television series loosely based on the adventures of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black and white series ran on ABC-TV from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian as Earp. An off-camera barbershop quartet sang the theme song and hummed...

(1955–1961).

Early years and career

O'Brian was born in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, the son of Hugh John Krampe, a career United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

 officer, and his wife Edith Krampe. He attended New Trier High School
New Trier High School
New Trier High School is a public four-year high school , with its major campus located in Winnetka, Illinois, USA, and a second campus in Northfield, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration...

 in Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka, Illinois
Winnetka is an affluent North Shore village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. Winnetka was featured on the list of America's 25 top-earning towns and "one of the best places to live" by CNN Money in 2011...

 (as did Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, Ann-Margret, and many other future stars), and later Kemper Military School
Kemper Military School
Kemper Military School & College was a private military school located in Boonville, Missouri. Kemper filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2002. The school's motto was "Nunquam Non Paratus" .-Early years under Frederick T. Kemper:...

 in Boonville, Missouri
Boonville, Missouri
This page is about the city in Missouri. For other communities of the same name, see Boonville Boonville is a city in Cooper County, Missouri, USA. The population was 8,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cooper County. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil...

. He lettered in football, basketball, wrestling, and track. O'Brian dropped out of the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

 after one semester to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Only 17, he became the youngest Marine drill instructor
Drill instructor
A drill instructor is a non-commissioned officer or Staff Non-Commissioned Officer in the armed forces or police forces with specific duties that vary by country. In the U.S. armed forces, they are assigned the duty of indoctrinating new recruits entering the military into the customs and...

.

After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, O'Brian moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 to study at UCLA. He was discovered on the stage by Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...

  who signed him to a film, Never Fear
Never Fear
Never Fear is a 1949 American film. The film's screenplay was co-written by Ida Lupino, who also directed the film, and Collier Young.The film is also known as The Young Lovers.- Cast :*Sally Forrest as Carol Williams...

, she was directing that led to a contract with Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

.

O'Brian replaced Bud Abbott
Bud Abbott
William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:...

 in what began as an Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...

 movie, Fireman Save My Child
Fireman Save My Child (1954 film)
Fireman Save My Child is a 1954 American comedy film starring Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett in a movie originally meant for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, a last-minute substitution when Costello fell ill. Comical musical band "Spike Jones and His City Slickers" also appear at great length, with...

(1954
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...

), with Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...

 cast in the Lou Costello
Lou Costello
Louis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...

 role, and Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...

 and his band also appearing at length.

He was chosen to portray legendary lawman, Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...

, on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a Western television series loosely based on the adventures of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black and white series ran on ABC-TV from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian as Earp. An off-camera barbershop quartet sang the theme song and hummed...

which debuted in 1955. Alongside Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, which debuted the same year, these shows spearheaded the "adult western" TV genre, where the emphasis was on character development as opposed to mere moral sermonizing. It soon became one of the top-rated shows on television. During its seven-year run Wyatt Earp consistently placed in the top 10 in the United States. O'Brian also appeared regularly on other programs in the 1960s, including Jack Palance
Jack Palance
Jack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...

's ABC circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 drama, The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth (TV series)
The Greatest Show on Earth is an American drama series starring Jack Palance about the American circus, which aired on ABC from September 17, 1963, to April 28, 1964...

, and as a 'guest attorney' in an episode of Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...

when its star, Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...

, was sidelined for a spell after minor, emergency surgery. He was a guest celebrity panelist on the popular CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 prime-time programs Password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....

and What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....

, and served as a mystery guest
What's My Line? Mystery Guests
The following is an alphabetized list of persons who were Mystery Guests on one version of the United States version of the television game show What's My Line?.-A:*Edie Adams...

 on three occasions. In 1999 and 2000 he costarred with Dick Van Patten
Dick Van Patten
Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...

, Deborah Winters
Deborah Winters
Deborah Winters is an American actress and businesswoman. Winters is probably most remembered for her roles in Kotch, The People Next Door, Class of '44, and The Winds of War...

, Richard Roundtree
Richard Roundtree
Richard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...

, and Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson
Richard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man...

 in the acclaimed Warren Chaney
Warren Chaney
Warren Herbert Chaney, Ph.D. is an American executive, author, filmmaker, behavioral scientist, entertainer, businessman and a pioneer in early television. In a career spanning four decades, Chaney wrote fifteen books, fourteen screenplays, and seventy-eight professional and nonprofessional...

 miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...

, Y2K - World in Crisis.

The actor made a number of motion pictures, among them Rocketship X-M
Rocketship X-M
Rocketship X-M was the second of the American science fiction feature films of the space adventure genre begun in the post-war era, in 1950...

(1950), The Lawless Breed
The Lawless Breed
The Lawless Breed is a 1953 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Rock Hudson. The film is based on the life of outlaw John Wesley Hardin.-Plot synopsis:...

(1953), There's No Business Like Show Business
There's No Business Like Show Business (film)
There's No Business Like Show Business is a 20th Century Fox musical film that was released on December 16, 1954. The title is borrowed from the famous song in the stage musical Annie Get Your Gun....

(1954), White Feather
White Feather (1955 film)
White Feather is a 1955 Technicolor western film directed by Robert D. Webb and starring Robert Wagner. The movie was filmed in Durango, Mexico. The story is based in fact, however, great artistic license is used and none of the characters are real....

(1955), Come Fly with Me
Come Fly with Me (film)
Come Fly with Me is a 1963 comedy film about three beautiful international airline stewardesses looking for romance and excitement. The film has dramatic or soap opera elements to it, and was a vehicle for glamorizing the jet age and the prestige, adventure and romance that came with being a...

(1963), Love Has Many Faces
Love Has Many Faces
Love Has Many Faces is a 1965 drama film made by Columbia Pictures. The movie was directed by Alexander Singer, and written by Marguerite Roberts. Nancy Wilson sings the title song whilst Edith Head designed Lana Turner's clothes.-Plot:...

(1965), In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way
In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon De Wilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.It was the last black-and-white...

(1965), Ten Little Indians
Ten Little Indians (1965 film)
The 1965 version of Ten Little Indians is the second film version of Agatha Christie's detective novel And Then There Were None . Although its background story is the same as the 1945 version , this one takes place on an isolated snowy mountain...

(1965) and Ambush Bay
Ambush Bay
Ambush Bay is a 1966 war film filmed on location in the Philippines that was produced by Aubrey Schenck and released through United Artists.-Plot:...

(1966). While on stage, Elvis Presley introduced O'Brian from the audience at the singer's April 1, 1975 performance at the Las Vegas Hilton, as captured in the imported live CD release "April Fool's Dinner." O'Brian was a featured star in the 1977 two-hour premiere of television's Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

. He is the last man that John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...

 ever killed on the screen in Wayne's final movie The Shootist
The Shootist
The Shootist is a 1976 Western starring John Wayne in his final film role. It was based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout. Scott Hale and Miles Hood Swarthout wrote the screenplay...

(1976). O'Brian was a good friend of the Duke and said he considers this a great honor. O'Brian appeared in fight scenes with a Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...

 lookalike in Lee's last film Game of Death
Game of Death
The Game of Death is a 1972 film starring Bruce Lee. It was almost the last film Bruce Lee had planned to be the demonstration piece of his martial art Jeet Kune Do. Over 100 minutes of footage was shot before his death, some of which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives...

.

O'Brian recreated his Wyatt Earp role for two 1990s projects, Guns of Paradise (1990) and The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) with fellow actor Gene Barry
Gene Barry
Gene Barry was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Barry is best remembered for his leading roles in the films The Atomic City and The War of The Worlds and for his portrayal of the title character in the TV series Bat Masterson, among many roles.-Personal life:Barry was born...

 doing likewise as lawman Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson
William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a figure of the American Old West known as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Marshal and Army scout, avid fisherman, gambler, frontier lawman, and sports editor and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph...

 for each. He also had a small role in the Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...

/Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....

 1988 comedy film Twins
TWINS
Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...

,
as one of several men who had "donated" the DNA that later became the "twins." In the film, Schwarzenegger thought he'd found his "father," when he met Hugh O'Brian's character.

For his contribution to the television industry, Hugh O'Brian has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 6613½ Hollywood Blvd. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...

 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

.

Marriage

On June 25, 2006, O'Brian married for the first time at age 81; his wife is the former Virginia Barber (born ca. 1952). The ceremony was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...

, with the Reverend Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral
Crystal Cathedral
The Crystal Cathedral is a Protestant Christian church building in the city of Garden Grove, in Orange County, California, United States. It is the headquarters and principal place of worship for Crystal Cathedral Ministries, a church founded in 1955 by Robert H. Schuller and affiliated with the...

 in Garden Grove
Garden Grove, California
Garden Grove is a city located in northern Orange County, California. The population was 170,883 at the 2010 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, passes through the city running east-west. The city is known outside the Southern California area for being the home of Robert H...

, officiating. The couple was serenaded by close friend, Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

.

HOBY

Hugh O'Brian has dedicated much of his life to the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY)
Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation
Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership is an organization dedicated to training and nurturing the young leaders of tomorrow. Its mission is to provide lifelong leadership development opportunities that empower youth to achieve their highest potential....

.
HOBY is a non-profit youth leadership development program that empowers 10,000 high school sophomores annually through its over 70 leadership programs in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its inception in 1958, over 355,000 young people have been inspired by HOBY.

One high school sophomore from every high school in the United States, referred to as an “ambassador,” is welcome to attend a state or regional HOBY seminar. From each of those seminars, students (number based on population) are offered the opportunity to attend the World Leadership Congress (WLC). In 2008, over 500 ambassadors attended from all 50 states and 20 countries.

The concept for HOBY was inspired in 1958 by a nine-day visit O’Brian had with famed humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa. Dr. Schweitzer believed "the most important thing in education is to teach young people to think for themselves."

Hugh O’Brian’s message to young people is “Freedom to Choose” Here is his brief speech on this topic: "I do NOT believe we are all born equal. Created equal in the eyes of God, yes, but physical and emotional differences, parental guidelines, varying environments, being in the right place at the right time, all play a role in enhancing or limiting an individual's development. But I DO believe every man and woman, if given the opportunity and encouragement to recognize their potential, regardless of background, has the freedom to choose in our world. Will an individual be a taker or a giver in life? Will that person be satisfied merely to exist or seek a meaningful purpose? Will he or she dare to dream the impossible dream?

"I believe every person is created as the steward of his or her own destiny with great power for a specific purpose, to share with others, through service, a reverence for life in a spirit of love."

See also

  • Probe (1972 TV pilot)
    Probe (1972 TV pilot)
    Not to be confused with Probe Probe was a 2 hour TV pilot movie created by Leslie Stevens that first aired on February 21, 1972 on NBC. Probe was the pilot for the science fiction detective series Search starring Hugh O'Brian as Hugh Lockwood, a high-tech private eye designated “Probe One”...

  • Search (TV series)
    Search (TV series)
    Search is an American science fiction series that aired on Wednesday nights on NBC at 10 pm ET, from September 1972 to August 1973. It ran for 23 episodes, not including the two-hour pilot film originally titled Probe. When picked up for series production, the title had to be changed because Probe...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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