Richard Chamberlain Notevuary

Richard Chamberlain, who died today at the age of 90, turned to glory as a Heartthrob Dr Kildare TV in the 1960s.

Her fringent beauty earned him legions of female fans and guaranteed him work in a plethora of rather forgettable TV movies.

But, at the mature age, his career has increased again.

Chamberlain became king of the 1980s television mini-series: playing a Western prisoner in Shogun and a Catholic priest attempted by love in thorny birds.

He denied being gay when he was confronted with a French magazine in 1989 and did not speak publicly about his homosexuality before the age of 70.

In interviews promoting his 2003 memories, he advised other beautiful leading actors to keep their sexuality for them.

“There is still a huge amount of homophobia in our culture,” he said. “Please don’t pretend that we are suddenly all wonderfully, happily.”

George Richard Chamberlain was born on March 31, 1934 in Beverly Hills, California. He died one day before his 91st birthday.

His seller had a drink problem, which affected the childhood of young Richard. He described himself as a “shy, serious and dismal kid, painfully thin, with a long and sad face”.

He admitted that he was the “uncoperative kid of the school” but discovered a taste and a talent for athletics.

At Pomona College, he was bitten by the actor bug – and a role in the arms of Bernard Shaw and the man convinced him that he had found his vocation.

Paramount studios was interested in him, but thoughts of an acting career were suspended after being called, serving 16 months with the American army, reaching the rank of sergeant when he was parked in Korea.

When he released, he made a number of cameos in television shows, including an episode of the popular Western, Gunsmoke.

Not everyone had chosen Chamberlain as a future star.

It was quite beautiful: with profiles at the time gushing on his “aristocratic face bordered, suggesting a young noble Florentin – straight out of the Renaissance”.

But, it was naturally difficult – who worked in his favor when he auditioned to play Dr. James Kildare, a medical trainee who has trouble learning his profession, in the new medical drama in prime time of NBC.

“It may be inevitable,” said a friend and rival. “Who else might look as anti-sensitive as Dick?”

The series lasted nearly 200 programs in five seasons.

He innovated, by raising questions such as drug addiction – which had not been shown before on American television.

There was a huge reaction from female fans.

Chamberlain received 12,000 letters per week. In Pittsburgh, 450,000 people turned out to see him during a parade, and in New York, he almost caused a riot when a child spotted him and called his name.

The studio took advantage of this attention, publishing novels, comics and games with the image of Chamberlain.

Fans would even write by asking “Dr Kildare” to solve their various medical problems.

And Chamberlain had an improbable successful single: Three Stars will shine tonight, where romantic words have been added to the distinctive opening theme of the series.

He won a Golden Globe Award for the best television actor in 1963. But three years later, the public began to decline and NBC pulled.

Now an international star, Chamberlain had trouble let Kildare behind.

In 1966, he hoped to enter the films, but the criticisms planned his performance in the light romantic comedy, Joy in the Morning.

The public, he said, laughed in “all bad places”. So he resolved to ignore Hollywood and earn a living on stage.

He took a difficult start when a musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany – in which he played in front of Mary Tyler Moore – closed after only four shows.

Production is always considered one of the biggest Broadway turkeys. But a move to England gave him a chance to reinvent himself as a “serious actor”.

In 1967, there were roles played in the portrait of Henry James of a woman and Katherine Hepburn in a satirical comedy entitled The Madwoman of Chaillot.

And, two years later, he became the first American to play Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theater since the Grand John Barrymore in 1925.

This time, the criticisms were excellent and he saw the role of the most tortured prince in Denmark for a television version for Hallmark.

But Chamberlain was interpreted as Tchaikovsky in the exaggerated biopic of Ken Russell, music lovers, in which he played in front of Glenda Jackson.

Critics rubbed the film, in which a big game was made of the relationship between a composer with repressed homosexual trends and his nymphomaniac wife, although she later became a cult success.

Chamberlain continued to play Lord Byron opposite Sarah Miles in Lady Caroline Lamb and the French swashbuckling sword in the three musketeers of Richard Lester.

It also appeared – as well as half of Hollywood – in the imposing inferno, as a twisted electrician engineer whose angle cup leads to the spectacular destruction of a 138 -story building.

In 1977, the Roots television series – taking place at the time of American slavery – attracted a general public and was nominated for nearly 40 Emmy Awards.

This sparked a rebirth of the mini-series that brought Chamberlain back to television.

He beat Roger Moore and Albert Finney to be interpreted as John Blackthorn – an English navigator captive in the 17th century in Japan – in Shogun.

The series was presented on NBC over five nights in 1980, with an audience reaching nearly 30 million.

Having won a Golden Globe, Chamberlain then picked up another as Father Ralph de Bricassart in thorny birds, a torn priest between God and his sexual desire for the actress, Rachel Ward.

It was even more effective than Shogun, winning an audience of 60% of viewers and 16 Emmy nominations.

In the 1990s, Chamberlain’s career began to decline.

There was a succession of solid performance, rather than exceptional, in films made for television and endless appearances in the emissions of other people.

These included a suite of thorny birds called the missing years, Amanda Donohoe replacing Rachel Ward.

In 2003, long after having stopped playing romantic leading men, Chamberlain published his Broken Biography L’Amour, in which, for the first time, he confirmed that he was gay.

Despite a relationship of more than 30 years with actor and director Martin Rabbett, with whom he had played once in the film Allan Quatermain and the city lost in gold, they had kept their private private life.

“I thought there was something very, very deeply bad with me,” he said, “and I wanted to cover it. I remember having a pact with myself that I would never reveal this secret, never.”

Chamberlain and Rabbett separated in 2010.

In recent years, Chamberlain has been happy to play a gay man, especially in desperate housewives and Will & Grace.

He continued to perform in musical theater, including productions on the tour of Spamalot, My Fair Lady and the sound of music.

But he never regretted having hidden his sexuality to protect his career.

“I would have been a happier person who is out of the closet and free,” he told El Pais in 2024. “But I had other reasons that made me happy. I was an actor who works and for me, it was the most important.”

We will remember himself as the king of the TV mini-series: the first dashing man in everything, from Dr Kildare to thorny birds.

Despite attempts to reinvent themselves as a serious scene, he was his best on the small screen, entertaining millions of people looking home on the sofa.

Because, although there are always better players than Richard Chamberlain, little rivaled with his ability to hold a television audience.