Richard Boone

Richard Boone was married to Jane Hopper of Sausalito, CA, for a while in the 1940's in San Francisco where they both studied art and drama at the California Art Institute. They were best friends, drinkers both, but the marriage wasn't working so they split up and divorced. In 1945, Jane became pregnant from an affair with Richard Stiegler of Connecticut, a recently discharged naval captain, and even though she and Richard had separated, he nevertheless saw Jane through her pregnancy and the birth of a baby girl on June 17, 1946. The baby was given the name, "Melissa Boone" at birth but because it was hard at that time for an unmarried woman to have a child, the baby girl was put up for adoption and consequently adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Douglas G. Campbell of San Francisco who renamed her "Gail Russell Campbell". Jane's family tells of much craziness in her and Richard's relationship, including an instance when Richard was practicing sword fighting for a drama class and while waving his sword around, accidentally cut himself substantially in the thigh. Gail R. Campbell resides in Eugene, Oregon.

Richard Allen Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, to Cecile Lillian (Beckerman) and Kirk Etna Boone, a wealthy corporate lawyer. His maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, while his father was descended from a brother of frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Squire Boone. Richard was a college student, boxer, painter and oil-field laborer before ending up in the U. S. Navy during World War II. After the war he used the G. I. Bill to study acting with the Actor's Studio in New York. Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on Broadway in the play "Medea". Other plays followed, as did occasional TV work. In 1950 20th Century-Fox signed him to a contract and he made his screen debut in Halls of Montezuma (1951), playing a Marine Corps officer. Tall and craggy, Boone was continually cast in a number of war and western movies.

He also tackled roles such as Pontius Pilate in The Robe (1953) and a police detective in Vicki (1953).

In 1954 he was cast as Dr.

Konrad Styner in the pioneering medical series Medic (1954), which was a critical but not a ratings success. This role lasted for two years, though in the meantime, he continued to appear in westerns and war movies.

In 1957 he played Dr.

Wright, who treats Elizabeth for her memory lapses, in Lizzie (1957).

It was also in that year that Boone was cast in what is his best-known role, the cultured gunfighter Paladin in the highly regarded western series Have Gun - Will Travel (1957). Although a gun for hire, Paladin was usually a moral one, did the job and lived at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco. Immensely popular, the show made Boone a star. The series lasted six years, and in addition to starring in it, Boone also directed some episodes.

After Have Gun - Will Travel (1957) ended in 1963, Boone hosted a dramatic anthology series, The Richard Boone Show (1963), but it was not successful. Boone moved to Hawaii for the next seven years.

He still kept busy on the big screen during the series' run, appearing as Sam Houston in the John Wayne epic The Alamo (1960), and as a weary cavalry captain fighting Indians in A Thunder of Drums (1961).

During this time he made a few Westerns, including the muscular Rio Conchos (1964), but he was largely absent from the screen.

Turned down Jack Lord's role in Hawaii Five-O (1968).

He directed the final scenes of The Night of the Following Day (1969) at the insistence of star Marlon Brando, as Brando could no longer tolerate what he considered the incompetence of director Hubert Cornfield. The film is generally considered the nadir of Brando's career, though it didn't hurt Boone, who was cast as the heavy.

In the 1970s he moved to Florida, and resumed his film and TV career with a vengeance.

In 1972 he again appeared on television in the Jack Webb-produced series Hec Ramsey (1972) (years before he had played a police captain in Webb's first "Dragnet" film, Dragnet (1954)). Based on a real man, Hec was a tough, grizzled old frontier sheriff at the turn of the 20th century who, late in life, has studied the newest scientific theories of crime detection. His new boss, a much younger man, doesn't always approve of Hec, his nonconformist style or his new methods. The series lasted for two years.

Turned down Robert Shaw's role in The Sting (1973).

Taught acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City from 1974-75. He was temporarily replacing Sanford Meisner, who had become stricken with throat cancer.

His later career was seriously affected by his chronic alcoholism. He walked off the set of Diamante Lobo (1976) before he had recorded his dialog. As a result his voice in the film had to be dubbed by someone else.

According to Joseph McBride's "Searching for John Ford" (St. Martin's Press, 2001 - ISBN 0312242328), director John Ford was urged to cast Boone and Anthony Quinn as the Little Wolf and Dull Knife characters in Cheyenne Autumn (1964), as both had Native American blood. Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland, who were of Mexican descent, were cast instead.

In her 2004 autobiography "'Tis Herself", 'Maureen O'Hara' wrote that Boone and Peter Lawford, while filming Kangaroo (1952) in Melbourne, Australia, were arrested in a gay brothel "full of beautiful boys", but the studio prevented this from being reported by the press.