Richard Allen Boone (June 18 1917, Los Angeles, California - January 10 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns. Most famously, he was the star of the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.
The Richard Boone Show was a short-lived but award-winning anthology television series. It aired on NBC during the 1963-64 season.
Richard Boone hosted the series and starred in about half of the episodes, garnering an Emmy nomination for himself and a Golden Globe award for the show. His repertory company of 15 actors included up-and-comers such as Guy Stockwell and Robert Blake as well as established performers like like Bethel Leslie (who was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the series), Warren Stevens and Harry Morgan. They rotated parts freely; each appeared in most episodes, and each starred in at least one. The regular writers included Robert Dozier, Rod Serling, and Clifford Odets. Producer Buck Houghton was overseen by the prolific team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.
Programmed against the very popular ABC dramatic series, The Fugitive, Boone's anthology show was unable to find or keep an audience. It was cancelled after only one season, and has not been syndicated or released on home video.
An anthology series starring Richard Boone as host and starred in about 50% of the shows. Each regular had parts in almost every episode and starred in at least one episode. Written by J.E. McKillop
Richard Boone 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 (1950), playing a Marine 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 Robe, The (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, but 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. He still kept busy on the big screen during the series' run, appearing as Sam Houston in the John Wayne (I) epic Alamo, The (1960), and as a weary cavalry captain fighting Indians in Thunder of Drums, A (1961). After "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957) ended in 1963, Boone hosted a dramatic anthology series, "Richard Boone Show, The" (1963), but it was not successful. Boone moved to Hawaii for the next seven years. During this time he made a few Westerns, including the muscular Rio Conchos (1964), but he was largely absent from the screen. 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)). Hec was a tough, grizzled old frontier sheriff at the turn of the 20th century who had to put up with a bright, eager young deputy who was schooled in the the most "modern" crime fighting techniques, which Hec had a hard time adapting to. The series lasted for two years. Boone continued working until the end of the decade but died from throat cancer in 1981.
