Peter Mark Richman

Attended South Philadelphia High School and was the captain and fullback of the city championship football team. He graduated in 1945.

This durable, granite-faced actor with the matching steel-edged voice was one of the most interesting and recognisable leads in 1950s and 1960s television. He was born Marvin Jack Richman in South Philadelphia to paper and roofing contractor Benjamin Richman and his wife Yetta Dora (née Peck), the youngest of five siblings. His childhood was -- by his own account -- 'horrendous'. The family was not well off and money was hard to come by. For two years he played football until sidelined by a knee injury.

Richman also studied at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, from which he graduated in 1951 as a fully qualified pharmacist. He briefly worked in that field, though his interest had always been in the performing arts, spurred on by regular childhood visits to the nearby Alhambra Theater and performances in high school dramatics.

Between 1952 and 1954, Richman trained at the Actor's Studio in New York under Lee Strasberg, having already made his stage debut in 1947.

An amazingly prolific screen actor, Richman was first brought to Hollywood by famed director William Wyler to appear in Friendly Persuasion (1956 (1956). There were a few subsequent big screen outings, but the lean, edgy and coldly handsome actor reserved his best for the small screen.

Has five children: Howard Bennett (B. 1958); Kelly Allyn (B. 1960); Lucas Dion (B. 1964); Orien (B. 1969); and Roger Lloyd (B. 1971). One son, Lucas Richman, is a music scorer and orchestrator.

His numerous roles have included appearances in The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), The Virginian (1962), Mission: Impossible (1966), Longstreet (1971) (as James Franciscus' cynical boss, Duke Paige), The Man from U. N. C. L. E.

By the early 60s, he starred in his own series at NBC, Cain's Hundred (1961). His character was a former syndicate lawyer, Nick Cain, who, after wanting to 'go straight' is targeted for a hit. When his fiancée gets killed in the crosshairs instead, Cain swears revenge and joins an FBI task force to bring down the top 100 mobsters by various legal means. While the series only ran to 30 episodes, it firmly established Richman in the medium. He was henceforth to alternate between nasty villains, stern authority figures and stoic heroes and become one of the most often killed guys on TV.

(1964) (as a rather camp THRUSH operative) and -- having lost none of his edge -- in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

For most of his early career he was billed as 'Mark Richman' but in 1971 changed his moniker to Peter Mark Richman because of his abiding belief in Subud, an Eastern spiritualist philosophy.

Created the role of C.C. Capwell on the soap series Santa Barbara (1984).

His well known voice was "the Phantom" on Defenders of the Earth: Necklace of Oros (1986). Also, his co-star Loren Lester played the voice of "Rick Gordon". In real life, Loren married Peter's daughter, Kelly.

In 1990, the Motion Picture and TV Fund presented him its Silver Medallion for his humanitarian efforts. He also received the Sybil Brand Humanitarian Award.

Until 1996, he acted on and off-Broadway and on the West Coast, as well as touring nationally in seminal plays like Mister Roberts, The Rainmaker and A Hatful of Rain.

Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern California Motion Picture Council in 2004.

Attended the 2006 Twilight Zone Convention at the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, August 12-13, 2006.