Matinee Classics - Richard Boone Biography & Filmography

Richard Boone ACTOR

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RICHARD BOONE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Richard Boone, born Richard Allen Boone on June 18, 1917 in Los Angeles, California, was a seventh generation nephew of American pioneer Daniel Boone, and the middle-child of Cecile and Kirk E. Boone. He married three times, but only had one child. Boone, just like one of his closest friends, John Wayne, is best known for acting in western dramas.

In 1934, he attended Stanford University, where he was on the boxing team. Boone then took a job as a truck driver and worked in the oil fields in Southern California. After that, he took classes at the Chouinard School of Art. During World War II, Boone joined the U.S. Navy and served on three ships in the South Pacific.

Following the war, Boone used the G.I. Bill to study acting with The Actor’s Studio in New York. In 1947 he debuted at age 31 on the Broadway stage in Judith Anderson’s production of “Medea”, as Jason, then again in “McBeth” in 1948, and once more in 1950 in “The Man”.

In 1950, Boone finally made it to the screen in the film “Halls of Montezuma”, playing a Marine and starring with Richard Widmark, Jack Palance, Reginald Gardiner, Robert Wagner, Neville Brand, Skip Homeier, Jack Webb, Philip Ahn, Martin Milner, Bert Freed and Karl Malden, followed by the movie “Call Me Mister” in 1951 also starring Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Danny Thomas, Dale Robertson, Benvay Venuta, Frank Fontaine and Jeffrey Hunter. He was signed to 20th Century Fox in 1951. Due to his height (he was 6’1”), burliness (he was 200 or so pounds), and roughness, Boone was continuously chosen to play parts in numerous western and war movies, not limited to “Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel” with James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Everett Sloane, Leo G. Carroll, Luther Adler, George Macready, Eduard Franz and Wiliam Reynolds and “Red Skies of Montana” which also starred Richard Widmark, Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Smith, Larry Dobkin, Warren Stevens, James Griffith, Joe Sawyer, Richard Crenna and Gregory Walcott, both in 1951. Also in 1952, Boone played an outlaw in “The Australian Story” which had another title "Kangaroo" with Maureen O'Hara, Peter Lawford and Chips Rafferty. In 1953 he was cast in the movie “The Robe” co-starring with Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie, with Dean Jagger, Jay Robinson, Leon Askin, Michael Ansara, Torin Thatcher, Cameron Mitchell, Jay Novello and Jeff Morrow, performing the small part of Pontius Pilot, and then cast as a police detective in another movie called “Vicki” with Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, Elliott Reid, Carl Betz, Casey Adams and Aaron Spelling and shortly followed with an adventure film "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" (1953) starring with Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, J. Carrol Naish, Peter Graves, Gilbert Roland, Jay Novello and Harry Carey Jr.

He starred in some more western movies after that, with his tobacco-fueled bass voice, pock-marked face, and gruff demeanor, which were traits directors loved to use in a villain. He was in some more notable films like “The Raid” (1954) co-starring Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin, Peter Graves, Tommy Rettig, James Best, Douglas Spencer, Will Wright, Paul Cavanagh, John Dierkes. William Schallert and Claude Akins, “Man Without a Star” (1955) starring Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, William Campbell, Jay C. Flippen, George Wallace, Sheb Wooley, Myrna Hansen, Mara Corday, Eddie Waller, Paul Birch and Roy Barcroft and “The Tall T” (1957) starring Randolph Scott, Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry Silva, Skip Homeier, John Hubbard and Arthur Hunnicutt.

Boone started to appear on television shows in 1954, when he played Dr. Konrad Steiner in the series “Medic”. The show earned him an Emmy nomination in 1955 for Best Actor Starring in a Regular Series. In 1957, he again played a doctor, but this time it was in a movie called “Lizzie” with Eleanor Parker, Marion Ross, Hugo Haas, Joan Blondell Dorothy Arnold and Johnny Mathis s a piano singer. It wasn’t until Boone’s second show (which he also directed some of), “Have Gun - Will Travel”, running from 1959-1963, that he achieved national stardom. Playing the role of a western soldier, Paladin, he pushed the series into the top ten during the first four seasons. He earned two more Emmy nominations for this show in 1959 and 1960. He was still active in the movie scene during this time, though, appearing in the epic John Wayne movie “The Alamo” (1960) which also featured Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon, Chill Wills, Patrick Wayne, Linda Cristal, Joseph Calleia, Ruben Padilla, Ken Curtis, Hank Worden, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams and Denver Pyle, and another picture called “A Thunder of Drums” (1961) with George Hamilton, Luana Patten, Charles Bronson, Richard Chamberlain, Slim Pickens and Arthur O'Connell.

During the 1960’s Boone appeared in many more television programs, including stints on “What’s My Line?”. In 1963-1964, he had his own dramatic anthology series, called “The Richard Boone Show”, which unfortunately failed to catch on, yet ironically won a Golden Globe for Best Television Series, and earned Boone an Emmy nomination for himself.

Boone moved to Hawaii for seven years after his show ended. There, he started his own production company, Pioneer Productions. During this time, Boone made a few more western movies, including “The War Lord” (1965) starring Charlton Heston, Rosemary Forsyth, Guy Stockwell, Maurice Evans, Niall MacGinnis, Henry Wilcoxon, James Farentino, Jon Alderson, Allen Jaffe, Sammy Ross and Woodrow Parfrey, “Rio Conchos” (1967) co-starring Stuart Whitman, Anthony Franciosa, Edmond O'Brien, Rodolfo Acosta, Jim Brown, Warner Anderson and Timothy Carey, which won a Golden Laurel Award, and “Hombre” (1967) starring Paul Newman, Fredric March, Martin Balsam, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Rush, Frank Silvera, Val Avery and David Canary.

In 1971, he and his family moved to Florida. Boone appeared in “Hec Ramsey” (1972-1974), a western television series produced by an old friend, Jack Webb. He began giving acting lectures at Flagler College in 1972-1973, and taught at The Neighborhood’s Playhouse, the same school he once studied at, in the mid-1970’s. Throughout the 1970’s, Boone alternated teaching, and performing in a handful of feature films and a number of television movies. Near the end of his acting career, he was in a handful of made-for-TV films such as “In Broad Daylight” (1971) with Suzanne Pleshette, Stella Stevens, John Marley, Sam Edwards and Whit Bissell, “Deadly Harvest” (1972) with Patty Duke, Michael Constantine, Jack Kruschen and Murray Hamilton, and “The Last Dinosaur” (1977) with Steven Keats and Joan Van Ark.

His final appearance was in the 1979 Kung Fu feature “The Bushido Blade” with Frank Converse, Sonny Chiba, Toshiro Mifune, Mako, Laura Gemser and James Earl Jones, although Boone died before the movie was released in America. His death was due to throat cancer, and he passed away at 65 on January 10, 1981, while serving as the cultural ambassador for the State of Florida. He ended his career having four Emmy nominations, one Golden Globe nomination, and one Golden Laurel.

Richard Boone, who starred alongside John Wayne in three movies "The Alamo” (1960), “Big Jake” (1971) narrated by George Fenneman and also starring Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Bruce Cabot, Bobby Vinton, John Doucette, John Agar, Glenn Corbett, Jim Davis, Harry Carey Jr., Hank Worden, Virginia Capers, William Walker, Gregg Palmer, Roy Jenson and Ethan Wayne, “The Shootist” (1976) starring alongside Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Harry Morgan, James Stewart, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers, John Carradine, Bill McKinney and Hugh O'Brian in John Wayne's final film role before ha passed away on June 11, 1979, and was in hundreds of television appearances and nearly fifty motion pictures, proving he was a talented actor. While he typically was cast as a villain in his roles, he still took control of every character, and is a household name in the western movie genre.