Saturday, February 8, 2020

Robert Conrad, R.I.P.

Actor Robert Conrad, best known for his portrayal of Jim West in the 1960's TV series The Wild, Wild  West, has passed away of heart failure. He would have turned 85 on March 1st.

Conrad was a fixture on television for several decades. Before his success on The Wild, Wild West, Conrad starred in Hawaiian Eye which ran on ABC between 1959-1963. After two unsuccessful series in the early 1970's (The D.A. and Assignment Vienna), Conrad made a critically acclaimed appearance as the murderous Milo Janus in the 1974 Columbo episode "An Exercise in Fatality". Conrad's last hit TV show was Ba Ba Black Sheep (later renamed Black Sheep Squadron) in which he played WWII flying hero Greg "Pappy" Boyington.

In 1979 and 1980, Conrad reunited with Ross Martin for two TV movies - The Wild, Wild West Revisited and More Wild, Wild West. More movies were planned but Martin's death in 1981 put the series to an end. Conrad would spend the 1980's in a string of TV movies most notably Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy. 

Conrad's acting career effectively ended in 2003 following a car accident which left him partially paralyzed. He would also be convicted of drunk driving and was sentenced to five years of probation including six months of house arrest and alcohol counseling.

The last decade of his life was spent in radio hosting The P.M. Show with Robert Conrad, a two hour weekly program in which he would discuss his career and interview his contemporaries.

In the late 1950's & early 1960's, Conrad recorded for Warner Brothers as Bob Conrad. Have a listen to "Bye Bye Baby" which bubbled under the Hot 100 in 1961. R.I.P.


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