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Robert Fuller (actor)
Encyclopedia
Robert Fuller is an American former television Western
actor and current rancher. In his five decades of television, he's best known for starring roles on the popular 1960s western
series Laramie
as Jess Harper, and Wagon Train
as Cooper Smith, as well as his work for his lead role, Dr. Kelly Brackett, in the popular 1970s medical drama Emergency!
, opposite his best friends Julie London
and her husband Bobby Troup
.
, to Betty Simpson, a dance instructor. Prior to Lee's birth, Simpson married Robert Simpson, Sr., a Naval Academy
officer. The family moved to Key West, Florida
, where Lee took the name of his parents, becoming Robert Simpson, Jr.. The early highlights of Simpson's life were acting and dancing (his parents owned a dancing school), and after graduating from the Miami Military Academy in 1952, he traveled to Hollywood with his family, where Fuller's first job was a stunt man. He also worked at the prestigious Grauman's Chinese Theatre
. Upon establishing his acting career, he changed his name to "Robert Fuller."
. This part led to landing in a few small roles such as I Love Melvin. In 1953, he again had another minor part in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which starred Marilyn Monroe
, but Fuller's career came to an abrupt halt when he was drafted into the military. He did a tour of duty in Korea, and came back in 1955.
Fuller had considered another career, but at his parents' suggestion, he attended Richard Boone
's acting classes, under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner
at New York City's
Neighborhood Playhouse
, and reconsidered.
, where he worked with his future Laramie
co-star John Smith
. Director William Wyler
suggested to Fuller that he grow sideburns for the role, and was offered the part when he did.
The following year, his first major movie role was Teenage Thunder
.
And in 1957, he also starred in the science fiction
film The Brain from Planet Arous
.
Also in 1959 he played an arson character in 'Highway Patrol' starring Broderick Crawford.
Fuller also portrayed a gruff military pilot in the infamous box office dud Megaforce
, a movie which he (understandably) dislikes talking about to this day.
, guest-star
ring in dozens of TV series (primarily in Westerns), including Crossroads
in 1956, The Big Valley
, Official Detective, The Californians
, The Restless Gun
, The Lawless Years
(in the role of "Cutie Jaffe" on May 7, 1959), Panic!
, Buckskin
, M Squad
, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
, Lux Playhouse, Highway Patrol
, Lawman
, and Strange Intruder, where he played a villain
who died in the third episode. He also made more appearances in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
and Mike Hammer, among many others. His guest-starring appearance on Cimarron City led him to his starring in his own series later that year, Laramie, one of the few network television programs set in Wyoming
.
, in the 1950s detective series, Markham, however, he quickly turned the role down, knowing he'd wanted to be a cowboy, and Kelly wanted Fuller to get out of there. Around the same time, he landed a co-starring role of Jess Harper on the NBC
successful series Laramie
, which ran from 1959 to 1963. His co-stars were John Smith
and Spring Byington
. Fuller was asked to do a screen test for his favorite character, when both he & Smith, were up against their opposite characters, after Fuller passed the screen test, he won the role of Jess, while Smith got his Slim character. The show was aired in over 70 countries, as well.
When Laramie’ ended its run, Fuller jumped to another western, Wagon Train
. According to an August 17, 2009 interview with the actor on On Screen and Beyond, he wasn't brought into the show to replace Robert Horton
(whom he resembled and who in turn shares the same birthday but is 9 years Fuller's senior) in the role of the wagon train's scout. While Horton had worn a dark cowboy hat, Fuller usually wore a light one, presumably so that viewers would realize that a change had occurred. Horton already departed from the cast a season earlier, leaving John McIntire
to carry the series for a year. Fuller stepped in the following year, where he remained with the series, which switched to ABC
until it ended its run in 1965.
Over the next six years, Fuller would appear in a handful of nondescript films; it seemed his career was stalling as the western was slowly being retired from the American film industry. The one exception was his role as Vin in Return of the Seven
(1966) which was a modest, if lackluster, sequel to The Magnificent Seven
. In 1966, he also portrayed the ill-fated western military Captain William Judd Fetterman in the episode "Massacre at Fort Phil Kearney" near Fort Phil Kearny
in Wyoming
of NBC's Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
. His co-stars included Richard Egan
, Phyllis Avery
, Robert Pine
, and Carroll O'Connor
.
After producer Jack Webb
saw Fuller in the movie The Hard Ride
, he insisted Fuller to star in his new NBC medical drama
, Emergency!
. Fuller was reluctant to play a doctor, but the persistent Webb gave him an opportunity to accept the role of head physician, Dr. Kelly Brackett. He also said in an 2009 interview with On Screen and Beyond, he politely turned down the role, twice, but Webb said to Fuller, all Westerns have been canceled for the previous five years since 1971, and wouldn't come back, with the exception of one, that same decade (which was Little House on the Prairie
), so, he again didn't have a choice. In a recent interview with his best friend, James Drury
, he said of Fuller's vulnerable decision after Drury was asked if he had met legendary 1950s/1960s singer and B-movie
actress, Julie London
, "No, I had known Bobby Troup, her husband very well, we've done several shows together. But I never, really knew Julie, except just to meet her. Bobby [of course] became their very lifelong friends with her, and so forth, but I never spent any time on the road with her, but I think Bobby Fuller did. Bobby Troup and I did Perry Mason
, and we did several other shows before he ever started Emergency!. Fuller didn't really want to do a modern show, he wanted to do another Western, but Jack Webb talked him into it or insisted that he do it, and he was very happy, [of course] because it was a great success and he had a wonderful time with Julie London and with Bobby Troup." Also starring on Emergency!, were previously unfamiliar actors, Randolph Mantooth
as Paramedic Johnny Gage and Kevin Tighe
as Paramedic Roy DeSoto - the entire cast got along great with Fuller. During its first season, as a mid-season replacement in the 1971–1972 season, despite competing against another popular series, All in the Family
, it became a hit, as the network decided to renew the show for the 1972-73 season, where it stayed on the air for the next five years. In 1977, after a six-season run, Emergency! was put on hiatus, despite good ratings, and was eventually canceled in 1979 after eight and a half seasons and 134 episodes. In 1986, the entire Emergency! cast (with the exception of series' star/best friend, Julie London) appeared on Good Morning America
.
In the 1980s and 1990s Fuller played supporting roles
in more than 20 television shows, including The Love Boat
, The Fall Guy
, Murder, She Wrote
, Matt Houston
, Tour of Duty
, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
, JAG
, and Diagnosis: Murder
. Toward the end of his acting career, he had a recurring role as Jess's supposedly, great, great grandson, Wade Harper, before and on the last episode of Walker, Texas Ranger
with Chuck Norris
and Clarence Gilyard
. He also played a different character on the same series, before playing Wade.
By the 1990s, Fuller had largely retired from the film business. He has been married to actress Jennifer Savidge (best known for TV's St. Elsewhere
) since May 19, 2001. Formerly he was married to Patricia Lee Lyon, with whom he has three children. The two were divorced after 22 years of marriage in 1984.
Since March 18, 1990, Fuller is currently one of the celebrity panels (along with James Drury
), who in turn attends the annual Festival of the West, a public/private party where die hard fans of his ask him questions about his roles on Laramie, Wagon Train, among the many of his legendary roles on television. He also tells the story about being a cowboy, himself, included at his party, are some country-western dancing, lunch and dinner.
Between Oct. 9-11, 1998, Fuller was reunited, once again, with the rest of the surviving Emergency! cast, at Convention '98, which took place at the Burbank Airport Hilton in Burbank, California
, except for Julie London (who suffered a stroke in 1995, and died 5 years later in 2000), but for co-star, Bobby Troup, who passed away just 4 months after attending the party, despite being in frail health. He and the rest of the stars/crew answered some of the fans questions, remembered the times where his castmates gotten along, in addition, there was also a big party at the conference.
In Mid-2004, Fuller and Jennifer Savidge moved from Los Angeles to Texas
, where they live on a ranch.
Fuller presented while honoring another one of his best friends of four decades, James Drury, to award himself with the 2010 Cowboy Spirit Award at Festival of the West, on March 20, 2010.
He also paid tribute to his best friend, John Smith
, who passed away 15 years earlier on January 25, 1995. In the tribute, he recounted everything in Smith's life, especially Fuller's on- and off-screen chemistry with him, during his days on Laramie. Smith also attended the Festival of the West, for two seasons, before declining health prevented him from attending.
On Oct. 9, 2010, Fuller was also invited along with best friends Drury, Don Kay and Don Reynolds at the Wild West Toy Show in Azle, Texas
, specializing in buying and exchanging Western merchandising, plus horse riding.
In 1970, he won 5 Ottos, which are the German equivalent of the Emmy award. That same year, he won the Buffalo Bill
award for Outstanding Western Entertainment.
For his contribution to the television
industry, Robert Fuller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6608 Hollywood Blvd.
In 1989, he won the Golden Boot Award
.
In April 2007 Fuller was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City
.
On Oct. 12, 2007, he won Silver Spur Award along with Stuart Whitman
, Peter Brown
, and Dean Smith, who was given a lifetime achievement award.
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
actor and current rancher. In his five decades of television, he's best known for starring roles on the popular 1960s western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Laramie
Laramie (TV series)
Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. Laramie was a Revue Studios production which originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy and Robert Crawford, Jr...
as Jess Harper, and Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
as Cooper Smith, as well as his work for his lead role, Dr. Kelly Brackett, in the popular 1970s medical drama Emergency!
Emergency!
Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...
, opposite his best friends Julie London
Julie London
Julie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years...
and her husband Bobby Troup
Bobby Troup
Robert William "Bobby" Troup Jr. was an American actor, jazz pianist and songwriter. He is best known for writing the popular standard " Route 66", and for his role as Dr...
.
Early life
An only child, Fuller was born Buddy Lee in Troy, New YorkTroy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, to Betty Simpson, a dance instructor. Prior to Lee's birth, Simpson married Robert Simpson, Sr., a Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
officer. The family moved to Key West, Florida
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
, where Lee took the name of his parents, becoming Robert Simpson, Jr.. The early highlights of Simpson's life were acting and dancing (his parents owned a dancing school), and after graduating from the Miami Military Academy in 1952, he traveled to Hollywood with his family, where Fuller's first job was a stunt man. He also worked at the prestigious Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
. Upon establishing his acting career, he changed his name to "Robert Fuller."
Acting career before and after military service
Fuller's first small role was 1952's Above and BeyondAbove and Beyond (film)
Above and Beyond is a 1952 film about Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. It starred Robert Taylor as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his wife. James Whitmore played security officer Major Bill Uanna.-Cast:...
. This part led to landing in a few small roles such as I Love Melvin. In 1953, he again had another minor part in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which starred Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, but Fuller's career came to an abrupt halt when he was drafted into the military. He did a tour of duty in Korea, and came back in 1955.
Fuller had considered another career, but at his parents' suggestion, he attended Richard Boone
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
's acting classes, under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner , also known as Sandy, was an American actor and acting teacher who developed a form of Method acting that is now known as the Meisner technique....
at New York City's
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Neighborhood Playhouse
Neighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...
, and reconsidered.
Film career
Fuller landed a small role in Friendly PersuasionFriendly Persuasion (film)
Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was adapted by Michael Wilson from the 1945 novel The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, and was directed by William Wyler...
, where he worked with his future Laramie
Laramie (TV series)
Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. Laramie was a Revue Studios production which originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy and Robert Crawford, Jr...
co-star John Smith
John Smith (actor)
John Smith was an American actor remembered in particular for two NBC western television series.-Early life and career:He was born Robert Errol Van Orden, in Los Angeles, California...
. Director William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
suggested to Fuller that he grow sideburns for the role, and was offered the part when he did.
The following year, his first major movie role was Teenage Thunder
Teenage Thunder
- Cast :*Chuck Courtney as Johnnie Simpson*Melinda Byron as Betty Palmer*Paul Bryar as Bert Morrison*Tyler McVey as Frank Simpson*Helene Heigh as Aunt Martha Simpson*Robert Fuller as Maurie Weston*Bing Russell as Used-car salesman*Gil Perkins as Sgt. Benson...
.
And in 1957, he also starred in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
film The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous is a 1957 science-fiction film that features the theme of alien possession.-Plot:An outer-space terrorist from a planet named Arous - a brain-shaped creature named Gor - arrives on Earth and possesses young scientist Steve March...
.
Also in 1959 he played an arson character in 'Highway Patrol' starring Broderick Crawford.
Fuller also portrayed a gruff military pilot in the infamous box office dud Megaforce
Megaforce
Megaforce is an action film made in 1982 directed by former stuntman Hal Needham. The film starred Barry Bostwick, Persis Khambatta, Michael Beck, Edward Mulhare, Evan C...
, a movie which he (understandably) dislikes talking about to this day.
Character actor
Fuller became an immensely popular character actorCharacter actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
, guest-star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
ring in dozens of TV series (primarily in Westerns), including Crossroads
Crossroads (1955 TV series)
Crossroads is the title of a 30-minute American television religion drama series which aired from 1955–1957, the first season on ABC and the second via syndication....
in 1956, The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
, Official Detective, The Californians
The Californians (TV series)
The Californians is a 54-episode half-hour Western television series, set in the San Francisco gold rush of the 1850s, which aired on NBC from September 24, 1957, to May 26, 1959...
, The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict...
, The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years
The Lawless Years is the first television crime drama set during the Roaring 20s, having predated ABC's far more successful The Untouchables with Robert Stack by six months. The 47-episode half-hour series aired nonconsecutively on NBC from April 16 to August 27, 1959, from October 1, 1959, to...
(in the role of "Cutie Jaffe" on May 7, 1959), Panic!
Panic!
Panic! is a video game for the Sega CD that involves pressing numerous buttons in order to transverse a young boy or his dog through a complex labyrinth. The game was originally released in Japan, and had some risque "gags" that were assumed to be edited out if the game ever got a North American...
, Buckskin
Buckskin (TV series)
Buckskin is an American Western television series starring Tom Nolan, Sally Brophy, and Mike Road. The series aired on the NBC from July 3, 1958 until May 25, 1959, followed by summer reruns in 1959 and again in 1965.-Synopsis:...
, M Squad
M Squad
M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the...
, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children's television program which originally aired in 166 episodes on ABC from October 1954 until August 1959. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, who was being raised by the soldiers at a US Cavalry post known...
, Lux Playhouse, Highway Patrol
Highway Patrol (TV series)
Highway Patrol is a syndicated action crime drama series produced 1955-1959.-Overview:Highway Patrol stars Broderick Crawford as Dan Mathews, the gruff and dedicated head of a police force in an unidentified Western state...
, Lawman
Lawman (tv series)
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....
, and Strange Intruder, where he played a villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
who died in the third episode. He also made more appearances in 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...
and Mike Hammer, among many others. His guest-starring appearance on Cimarron City led him to his starring in his own series later that year, Laramie, one of the few network television programs set in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
.
Television roles
Patrick Kelly called Fuller to his office, that a young, unfamiliar actor realized he had done something wrong, knowing he'd be fired. Kelly offered him a opportunity for a co-starring role opposite Academy Award-winner Ray MillandRay Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
, in the 1950s detective series, Markham, however, he quickly turned the role down, knowing he'd wanted to be a cowboy, and Kelly wanted Fuller to get out of there. Around the same time, he landed a co-starring role of Jess Harper on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
successful series Laramie
Laramie (TV series)
Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. Laramie was a Revue Studios production which originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy and Robert Crawford, Jr...
, which ran from 1959 to 1963. His co-stars were John Smith
John Smith (actor)
John Smith was an American actor remembered in particular for two NBC western television series.-Early life and career:He was born Robert Errol Van Orden, in Los Angeles, California...
and Spring Byington
Spring Byington
Spring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
. Fuller was asked to do a screen test for his favorite character, when both he & Smith, were up against their opposite characters, after Fuller passed the screen test, he won the role of Jess, while Smith got his Slim character. The show was aired in over 70 countries, as well.
When Laramie’ ended its run, Fuller jumped to another western, Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
. According to an August 17, 2009 interview with the actor on On Screen and Beyond, he wasn't brought into the show to replace Robert Horton
Robert Horton (actor)
Robert Horton is an American television actor, who was most noted for the role of the frontier scout Flint McCullough in the NBC Western television series, Wagon Train...
(whom he resembled and who in turn shares the same birthday but is 9 years Fuller's senior) in the role of the wagon train's scout. While Horton had worn a dark cowboy hat, Fuller usually wore a light one, presumably so that viewers would realize that a change had occurred. Horton already departed from the cast a season earlier, leaving John McIntire
John McIntire
John McIntire was an American character actor.-Career:The craggy-faced film actor was born in Spokane in eastern Washington State but reared in Montana, growing up around ranchers and cowboys, an experience that would later inspire his performances in dozens of westerns.A graduate of USC, McIntire...
to carry the series for a year. Fuller stepped in the following year, where he remained with the series, which switched to 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...
until it ended its run in 1965.
Over the next six years, Fuller would appear in a handful of nondescript films; it seemed his career was stalling as the western was slowly being retired from the American film industry. The one exception was his role as Vin in Return of the Seven
Return of the Seven
Return of the Seven , is the first sequel to the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. Made in 1966, Yul Brynner is the sole returning cast member from the first film, portraying Chris Adams....
(1966) which was a modest, if lackluster, sequel to The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
. In 1966, he also portrayed the ill-fated western military Captain William Judd Fetterman in the episode "Massacre at Fort Phil Kearney" near Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny
Fort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming along the Bozeman Trail. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental...
in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
of NBC's Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967...
. His co-stars included Richard Egan
Richard Egan (actor)
Richard Egan was an American actor. In some films he is credited as Richard Eagan.-Career:Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army as a judo instructor during World War II...
, Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...
, Robert Pine
Robert Pine
Robert Pine is an American actor who has starred on television and in film. He is probably best known for his role as Sgt. Joseph Getraer on the hit NBC television series CHiPs from 1977 to 1983.-Personal life:...
, and Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...
.
After producer Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
saw Fuller in the movie The Hard Ride
The Hard Ride (1971 film)
The Hard Ride is a 1971 action film about a U.S. Marine who promises to take care of a dead buddy's motorcycle, and is threatened by a rival biker gang in the process. The film was written and directed by Burt Topper, and stars Robert Fuller, Sherry Bain, and Tony Russel....
, he insisted Fuller to star in his new NBC medical drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, Emergency!
Emergency!
Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...
. Fuller was reluctant to play a doctor, but the persistent Webb gave him an opportunity to accept the role of head physician, Dr. Kelly Brackett. He also said in an 2009 interview with On Screen and Beyond, he politely turned down the role, twice, but Webb said to Fuller, all Westerns have been canceled for the previous five years since 1971, and wouldn't come back, with the exception of one, that same decade (which was Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
), so, he again didn't have a choice. In a recent interview with his best friend, James Drury
James Drury
James Child Drury, Jr. is an American actor probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, broadcast on NBC from 1962-1971...
, he said of Fuller's vulnerable decision after Drury was asked if he had met legendary 1950s/1960s singer and B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
actress, Julie London
Julie London
Julie London was an American singer and actress. She was best known for her smoky, sensual voice. London was at her singing career's peak in the 1950s. Her acting career lasted more than 35 years...
, "No, I had known Bobby Troup, her husband very well, we've done several shows together. But I never, really knew Julie, except just to meet her. Bobby [of course] became their very lifelong friends with her, and so forth, but I never spent any time on the road with her, but I think Bobby Fuller did. Bobby Troup and I did 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...
, and we did several other shows before he ever started Emergency!. Fuller didn't really want to do a modern show, he wanted to do another Western, but Jack Webb talked him into it or insisted that he do it, and he was very happy, [of course] because it was a great success and he had a wonderful time with Julie London and with Bobby Troup." Also starring on Emergency!, were previously unfamiliar actors, Randolph Mantooth
Randolph Mantooth
Randolph Donald Mantooth is an American character actor of stage, film and television. Mantooth is best known for his work in the 1970s medical drama, Emergency!, as Johnny Gage, a Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic...
as Paramedic Johnny Gage and Kevin Tighe
Kevin Tighe
Kevin Tighe is an American character actor primarily known for his roles on television. Tighe is best known for his role as Roy DeSoto, a senior paramedic, on the NBC series Emergency! . He and Randolph Mantooth, his partner in the series, have remained close friends...
as Paramedic Roy DeSoto - the entire cast got along great with Fuller. During its first season, as a mid-season replacement in the 1971–1972 season, despite competing against another popular series, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
, it became a hit, as the network decided to renew the show for the 1972-73 season, where it stayed on the air for the next five years. In 1977, after a six-season run, Emergency! was put on hiatus, despite good ratings, and was eventually canceled in 1979 after eight and a half seasons and 134 episodes. In 1986, the entire Emergency! cast (with the exception of series' star/best friend, Julie London) appeared on Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
.
In the 1980s and 1990s Fuller played supporting roles
Supporting actor
A supporting actor is an actor who performs roles in a play or film other than that of the leads.These roles range from bit parts to secondary leads. They are sometimes but not necessarily character roles. A supporting actor must also use restraint not to upstage the main actor/actress in the...
in more than 20 television shows, including The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...
, Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
, Matt Houston
Matt Houston
Matt Houston is an American crime drama series that aired on ABC from 1982 to 1985. Created by Lawrence Gordon, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling.-Synopsis:...
, Tour of Duty
Tour of duty
In the Navy, a tour of duty is a period of time spent performing operational duties at sea, including combat, performing patrol or fleet duties, or assigned to service in a foreign country....
, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County,The series is referred to as just Brisco or by Brisco County by the creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse, actors involved with the show, and by many critics. Some examples include:* Cuse, Carlton, DVD extra...
, JAG
JAG (TV series)
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...
, and Diagnosis: Murder
Diagnosis: Murder
Diagnosis: Murder is a mystery/medical/crime drama television series starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son, a homicide detective played by his real-life son Barry Van Dyke. The series began as a spin-off of Jake and the Fatman...
. Toward the end of his acting career, he had a recurring role as Jess's supposedly, great, great grandson, Wade Harper, before and on the last episode of Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...
with Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
and Clarence Gilyard
Clarence Gilyard
Clarence Darnell Gilyard, Jr. is a former American actor and a current college professor who has been featured in movies and television since 1980. He is sometimes credited as Clarence A...
. He also played a different character on the same series, before playing Wade.
Personal life
Fuller was also an accomplished vocalist and did several 'bandstand gigs' with Bill Aken's 'Los Nomadas' rock group at holiday festivities in Whiskey Flats, California. While acting as Grand Marshall for the local Memorial Day parade, He brought down the house with his vocal rendition of the 1950s song 'Caribbean' singing the same verse over and over. (He later told the band, the first verse was the only verse he knew the lyrics to.) In 1967, he had recorded an EP in Munich, Germany. Most of the songs were recorded in German. Some of the songs include Ein Einsamer Cowboy or "Lonesome Cowboy", Adios Mexicana or "Goodbye Mexican Girl", which was ironic since the title's in Spanish, but the song was sung in German, Uberall Auf Der Welt or "All over the World", Schone Madchen Sind Wie Blumen or "Girls are like Flowers". Whether the album was successful in Germany is unknown.By the 1990s, Fuller had largely retired from the film business. He has been married to actress Jennifer Savidge (best known for TV's St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
) since May 19, 2001. Formerly he was married to Patricia Lee Lyon, with whom he has three children. The two were divorced after 22 years of marriage in 1984.
Since March 18, 1990, Fuller is currently one of the celebrity panels (along with James Drury
James Drury
James Child Drury, Jr. is an American actor probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series The Virginian, broadcast on NBC from 1962-1971...
), who in turn attends the annual Festival of the West, a public/private party where die hard fans of his ask him questions about his roles on Laramie, Wagon Train, among the many of his legendary roles on television. He also tells the story about being a cowboy, himself, included at his party, are some country-western dancing, lunch and dinner.
Between Oct. 9-11, 1998, Fuller was reunited, once again, with the rest of the surviving Emergency! cast, at Convention '98, which took place at the Burbank Airport Hilton in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, except for Julie London (who suffered a stroke in 1995, and died 5 years later in 2000), but for co-star, Bobby Troup, who passed away just 4 months after attending the party, despite being in frail health. He and the rest of the stars/crew answered some of the fans questions, remembered the times where his castmates gotten along, in addition, there was also a big party at the conference.
In Mid-2004, Fuller and Jennifer Savidge moved from Los Angeles to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where they live on a ranch.
Fuller presented while honoring another one of his best friends of four decades, James Drury, to award himself with the 2010 Cowboy Spirit Award at Festival of the West, on March 20, 2010.
He also paid tribute to his best friend, John Smith
John Smith (actor)
John Smith was an American actor remembered in particular for two NBC western television series.-Early life and career:He was born Robert Errol Van Orden, in Los Angeles, California...
, who passed away 15 years earlier on January 25, 1995. In the tribute, he recounted everything in Smith's life, especially Fuller's on- and off-screen chemistry with him, during his days on Laramie. Smith also attended the Festival of the West, for two seasons, before declining health prevented him from attending.
On Oct. 9, 2010, Fuller was also invited along with best friends Drury, Don Kay and Don Reynolds at the Wild West Toy Show in Azle, Texas
Azle, Texas
Azle is a city in Parker and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,947.Popular tourist attractions include marine sports at Eagle Mountain Lake such as swimming, fishing and boating.-Geography:...
, specializing in buying and exchanging Western merchandising, plus horse riding.
Awards
In 1961, he won the Best Actor Award in Japan, also that same year, he won the Japanese Golden Order of Merit, which was awarded to him by the Empress of Japan. Fuller was the first American ever to earn this award.In 1970, he won 5 Ottos, which are the German equivalent of the Emmy award. That same year, he won the Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
award for Outstanding Western Entertainment.
For his contribution to the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
industry, Robert Fuller 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 6608 Hollywood Blvd.
In 1989, he won the Golden Boot Award
Golden Boot Awards
The Golden Boot Awards honor actors, actresses, and crew members who have made significant contributions to the genre of Western television and movies. The award is sponsored and presented by the Motion Picture & Television Fund...
.
In April 2007 Fuller was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
.
On Oct. 12, 2007, he won Silver Spur Award along with Stuart Whitman
Stuart Whitman
Stuart Maxwell Whitman is an American actor.Stuart Whitman is arguably best-known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the western television series Cimarron Strip in 1967...
, Peter Brown
Peter Brown (actor)
Peter Brown is an American television actor known for his role as Deputy Johnny McKay opposite John Russell in the 1958 Warner Bros. western series Lawman.-Early life:...
, and Dean Smith, who was given a lifetime achievement award.