Richard Crenna

Attended and graduated from Belmont High School in Los Angeles (1944).

Richard Donald Crenna was born in Los Angeles, California, into a modest-income family, the only child of Edith J. (Pollette) and Domenick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent. His mother managed a small hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where Richard and his family resided. He began his career when he was eleven years old, playing the dimmer half of two youngsters called Herman and Sam in the Los Angeles radio show "Boy Scout Jamboree". He stayed with the series on and off for seventeen years, doing hundreds of other radio shows in between, including voicing Ougy Pringle in "A Date with Judy" (1946). During this time, he graduated from high school with letters in track and basketball, and later enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he majored in Theater Arts.

He met and married his last wife in the late 1950s.

He was cast as Walter Denton in the radio show "Our Miss Brooks" and stayed in the part when the show moved from radio to television (Our Miss Brooks (1952)). The role called for a gangly, awkward, cracked-voice adolescent. Crenna was a tall, graceful man with a rich voice, yet his acting skills were such that he was easily able to fulfill the character's requirements, leading many viewers to believe that he actually was of high school age, when in fact he was 26 years old at the time.

Had three children - Seana Crenna, a social worker (born 1955); Richard Anthony Crenna, an actor (born 1959); and Maria Crenna, a CBS Vice-president (born 1966). Also had two grandchildren - Emma Crenna (born 1994) and Isabella Crenna (born 1997).

Crenna went on to star in another early television series, The Real McCoys - The Lost Episode (1957), but it was his role as the dedicated state legislator in the short-lived Slattery's People (1964) that finally established him both as a dramatic actor and a leading man. From that moment on, he was rarely absent from either television or motion pictures.

Had appeared in one film nominated for Best Picture Academy Award: The Sand Pebbles (1966).

The June 11, 1969, and also August 20, editions of Variety, in its Hollywood Production Pulse column, shows Richard Crenna starring with Robert Conrad and Tippi Hedren in the movie Seven Against Kansas, directed by David Friedkin, which started filming June 10, 1969, in Almeria, Spain. No evidence once the film was ever completed.

During the 1980s, he also became known for playing Colonel Trautman in the Rambo films (Rambo: First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985), and Rambo III (1988)). His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is in a prime position, opposite Mann's Chinese Theatre, two stars down from his Rambo co-star Sylvester Stallone. Crenna married shortly after his graduation from USC, but the marriage was short-lived.

In 1985, Crenna was awarded an Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor for The Rape of Richard Beck (1985).

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 23, 1988.

Crenna's character, Colonel Denton Walters, in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), is a tip of the hat to his old character Walter Denton in the radio and television series Our Miss Brooks (1952).

Crenna had a recurring role on Judging Amy (1999) as Jared Duff, the fiancé of Maxine Gray, Tyne Daly's character. His unexpected death prompted the writers of the series to have his character die unexpectedly as well, just before Jared and Maxine were to be married. The 2003 episode, entitled "Requiem", was dedicated to Crenna's memory.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 111-112. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale (2007).