Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, First Blood (and its following Rambo sequels), Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid. Perhaps though he is best remembered for his role as Walter Denton in the CBS radio and television series "Our Miss Brooks"; or as Luke McCoy in the ABC and CBS sitcom The Real McCoys (1957-1963).

Richard Crenna was born into a modest-income family. His mother managed a small hotel in downtown Los Angeles where Richard and his family resided. When he finished high school he enrolled at the University of Southern California and majored in Theater Arts. He first appeared on network radio while still a teenager as Ougy Pringle in "A Date with Judy" (1946). When that show was canceled he was cast in the role of Walter Denton on "Our Miss Brooks" and stayed in the part when the show moved from radio to television ("Our Miss Brooks" (1952)). The part 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. When the show was canceled he was cast as "Luke" on "Real McCoys, The" (1957). Richard married shortly after his graduation from USC, but the marriage was short-lived. He met and married his last wife in the late 1950s. He has more than 70 major motion pictures to his credit.

Richard Crenna was born and bred in Los Angeles, where 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 and somehow managed to graduate from high school with letters in track and basketball. He then went on to earn a degree from the University of Southern California. Crenna went on to star in two early television hits, "Our Miss Brooks" (1952) and "Real McCoys, The" (1957), but it was his role as the dedicated state legislator in the long-running "Slattery's People" (1964), which finally established him both as a dramatic actor and leading man. From that moment on, he has rarely been absent from either television or motion pictures. In 1985, Crenna was awarded an Emmy for Best Performance by an Actor for Rape of Richard Beck, The (1985) (TV) Crenna has a star in The Walk of Fame. His is in a prime position, opposite Mann's Chinese Theatre, two stars down from his Rambo (1987) costar Sylvester Stallone.