Please Tell Me About Richard Chamberlain, Dear DL

Ultimate Ken Doll. The Zac Efron of his day.

My grandma told me he's an alcoholic and confirmed bachelor.

He flaunted his HOT body when he was the King of the mini-series in the 80s

As a singer, four good notes, if that.

He was very popular back when he was Dr. Kildare and, of course, no one in the general public knew about his sexuality.

Barbara Stanwyck makes a pass at Richard in the Thorn Birds, and this was the only time she flubbed her lines.

He was a SINGA!!!

Likes to play bridge. Didn't go out much. Happy for many (40) years with Martin Rabbett.

He was a heartthrob back when he was Dr. Kildare. In those days, he went on "dates" with starlets like Yvette Mimieux. He seemed to disappear after that, although he got occasional film roles in supporting parts and then suddenly in the 80s, he started making mini-series with Thorn Birds, where he played the love interest of Barbra Stanwyck who was a million years old by that point. I'm guessing he bought property or otherwise managed his money well, because really he was only a big tv star for a few years and then did all that schlocky miniseries stuff for the money.

amberlain took up with handsome actor-writer-producer Martin Rabbett, who became his partner for almost A young Sharon Stone...along with Dick and Marty... Chamberlain had legally adopted Rabbett to protect his assets. In the spring of 2010 Chamberlain moved from Maui to Los Angeles because of work possibilities, leaving Rabbett behind at their luxury home in Hawaii (listed for sale in mid-2010 for $19 million). Later that year, responding to gossip about a split, Chamberlain said in an interview with Advocate, “Well, we haven’t really split. In other words, we’re still very, very close. The essence of our relationship has remained the same; we just don’t happen to be living together. I went home for Thanksgiving and had the most wonderful time, and we’ll be spending Christmas together with friends in New York. So we’re not split, really. I just moved to L.A. because I wanted to work more. Martin, unfortunately, doesn’t like L.A. at all, but he’s thinking of moving to San Francisco.”

In the 70s, a female friend met he and his boyfriend at a party. She said his boyfriend was even more beautiful than Chamberlain, he had blue eyes with dark curly hair. At the time, women viewed straight-acting gay men as a possibility. She wildly flirted with the bf but didn't get anywhere.

Can confirm the bridge playing. I dated a guy who used to go up to their house to play. #boring

Damn, Martin Rabbett was cute af. And 20 years younger.

To think of the gallons of cum they dumped in and on each other over 33 years.

But 76-year-old Richard left in 2010 because he thought he still had an acting career to pursue in LA. Martin just wanted to live quietly in Hawaii together.

Richard at his clit-hardening career peak as Dr. Kildare:

The Music Lovers

I watched Dr. Kildare when I was a kid. Had no idea Richard Chamberlain was gay.

He was like me, only he didn't have the urge to give away parts of foreign nations.

My nana was mad about him.

He was also criminally wasted on NIP/TUCK.

Loved in PETULIA.

If you had to chose between Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey or Mr. Novak who would it be?

He starred in a production of Hamlet on NBC in the early '70s, maybe as early as '69. It seems like it was from a Broadway production he starred in. He had a fairly steady film career between Dr. Kildare and that. I think he mainly did theater in the '70s and mostly in Europe.

He played gay on Brothers and Sisters as (inexplicably) Ron Rifkin's aged bf.

Very pretty. Never found him especially interesting. That's all I have to say.

Bless him.

I have the Thornbirds box set with a "special extras" DVD included. He described the experience and tears up, especially that part where he ordains his OWN SON as a priest. Oh and that they were freezing and had to retake the "passionate beach love" over and over bc it was not believable. Rachel Ward took one look at Bryan Brown and they ran off into the sunset together.

I wouldn't say that RC was Barbara Stanwyck's love interest....

Chamberlain did dinner theater in the 70s---mostly light comedy and musicals. Never much range in his film or tv work, but likeable and not awful or hammy. Probably a good utility player to fill out a cast--pretty and reasonably competent.

Ben Casey went for more realism than Dr. Kildare---Casey was a neurosurgeon whereas Kildare treated everything imaginable. Casey lost patients, Kildare never did. Casey fit the stereotype health care folks have of a surgeon, whereas Kildare was the doc everyone wished they had. Casey was filmed in a way that exploited the b&W photography to convey the atmosphere of a busy metropolitan hospital and the theme music also did this. Kildare was soft focus and muzak by comparison. Both shows were essentially anthologies focused on the guest star(s) ailment of the week, with plenty of melodrama.

Stanwyck's character was hot for her spiritual guide and her power as a patron is central to the story. Like a Johnny Mathis tune, it was the unattainable younger fantasy guy for women of a certain age.

Didn't he play Edward in a made for tv Wallis Simpson/Edward "The Woman I Love" type lifetime movie?

Chamberlain did dinner theater in the 70s --light comedy and musicals. he never had great range as ana actor, but also wasn't hammy or simply awful. Probably a good utility player to round out a cast---attractive, reasonably competent if a bit wooden.

Casey attempted to be more realistic than Kildare. Casey fit the stereotype health providers have of surgeons--surly and arrogant. Kildare was the fantasy of what people would like in a doc. Casey was a neuroseurgeon and although he strayed abit from that scope pf practice, he didn't treat everything under the sun like Kildare and occasionally lost a patient, which never happened to Kildare. Ben Casey was shot in a way that exploited the use of b&W to convey a busy metropolitan hospital (LA County Hospital was the model) and the theme song also did this---Kildare was soft focus and muzak by comparison. Both essentialy were anthologies with episodes built around each week's guest star(s)' ailments, with plenty of melodrama.

Stanwyck has more than spirutual interest in Chamberlain and its an essential part of the "priest as unattainable" love interest aspect of the soap opera. he's basically the visual version of a Johnny Mathis song for women of a certain age.

God, The Thorn Birds was ultimate camp, unintentionally. A pedo, Catholic priest, father’s a child with a young woman he’s been lusting over since she was a small child. Gross.

Rachel Ward was fucking GORGEOUS. She had one of the best bodies I’ve ever seen in a woman, & you know I’m being sincere because straight chicks and gay dudes are straight up about this kinda thing.

RC had been sober, in AA, for years. He had a reputation for being an entitled prick. A dry drunk, as they say.

He disappeared from the AA scene many, many years ago. I assume he’s drinking moderately, or swigging like a champ.

He was also gorgeous when young, btw. I wasn’t alive back then, but JFC, look at those photos posted above. Gorgeous.

My fave:

I remember when the miniseries Shogun was the must-see-tv big event. It was the first time that I ever heard of Richard Chamberlain.

Richard Chamberlain made a big split from Hollywood at the height of his TV fame in the 1960s and headed for London. The official story at the time was that he wanted to study the classics and hone his craft as an actor. He was able to squeeze a television production of Hamlet out of it.

One look at Martin Rabbett makes it clear that Richard Chamberlain likes them young. There has always been whispering that Chamberlain had a boy related scandal about to blow up and that's why he beat it out of the country at the absolute height of his fame.

Angela Lansbury did much the same thing a few years later when her Charles Manson scandal was about to blow up in her face. It's not good for business, but sometimes it is necessary.

Chamberlain has done Shakespeare on the stage.

Notorious pussy hound, banged hundreds of women. Pretended to be gay as a publicity stunt.

Back in the late 1970s there was a very long miniseries called Centennial, which followed a community in the Rockies over a period of 250+ years. I saw it about 15 years ago when it was on DVD.

Chamberlain was in the early episodes (as a Scottish trapper), and he was pretty good in it.

The cast was also like a DL's who's who.

In addition to Chamberlain, there was Robert Conrad, Gregory Harrison, Mark Harmon and Timothy Dalton.

Dr. Kildare was handsome, very handsome. But Ben Casey made me shiver. Omg.

r16Mr Novak for sure was the best. Chamberlain was too femme and Vince Edwards makes Alec Baldwin look smooth in comparison.

Hair raising!!!

The bigger mystery to me is why Vince Edwards was never able to parlay his Ben Casey fame into a film career. Or even another hit TV series. He was really sensational looking and so different from most of the vanilla-flavored TV leading men of the early 1960s.

He also had a great singing voice. Check him out on youtube.

Edwards was difficult on the set. He didn't like to reherse or do retakes. He didn't have great range either, although he was more interesting than Chamberlain who had come from a more privieleged background and had less life experience on which to draw. Edwards famously liked to knock off early and head to the track--it wasn't just a hobby either.

R11 I have heard about the boyfriend. An actor, said to be crushed really bad when Chamberlain left him. You could have seen him every Saturday on a Sci Fi show, using his first name. Still does the convention circuit fir it.

R28 people didn't care about how pedo-y the Thornbirds was. Everyone ate that shit up.

How old are they when they meet? She's ten and he's 26? So when they get down to making babies she is 20 & hes 36? I mean, didn't the same thing happen in Legends of the Fall?

Yes, it’s pure romance novel fodder in the guise of a GWTW-style saga.

R40, she’s anywhere from 5 to seven, when she meets Father Ralph.

R16, There are clips from Dr. Kildare episodes on YT.

R30, Charles Manson scandal?

Supposed to be a very nice guy. I love that version of Cinderella too. The costumes and color palette are stunning.

It's funny, but there were some actors who have come out with little surprise from the public, but at the time there may not have been much speculation about them from the general public in the late 70s. Richard Chamberlain was one of those actors. I can remember in high school, hearing the story of Rock Hudson marrying Jim Nabors (I'm 55) but nothing much further than that until it was revealed he was HIV+, when he was on "Dynasty." I don't remember anything about Richard Chamberlain, whom I remember from "Shogun" and "The Thorn Birds." McCullough's novel was a big bestseller, which I can recall my parents, their friends, and others reading. I loved it. It was no doubt the latent gay in me in 1977 that had me crying my eyes out, when Dane drowns in the novel. The miniseries was riveting. There was a big deal made about Rachel Ward, and her later romance and marriage to Bryan Brown was well-covered in the press. Also well covered was Chamberlain stripping down in front of Barbara Stanwyck. It may have been a first for network TV. But there wasn't anything that hinted at Chamberlain's sexuality. No doubt reporters knew, but they did not cover it in mainstream entertainment publications, like "People," let alone major newspapers.

The conservative turn of the Reagan years changed the dynamic. We were demonized. Instead of eliciting sympathy and a call to arms for help, the advent of the Aids crisis confirmed our "sinfulness" to many straights. Speculation about the sexuality of actors or other public persons increased out of prurient and malicious intent. I don't know if I'm right. Just a thought.

Supposedly, on the set of "Joy in the Morning," Yvette Mimieux, who had become friendly with Richard on her two guest appearances on "Dr Kildare," found out that Richard was gay and went around making disparaging comments about his manhood. This created a lot of on-set tension, which leaked out to the gossip columns, printed without naming names. Richard was a "nice guy" who lived quietly and didn't have scandalous sexcapades like Sal Mineo or Anthony Perkins, so the press spared him the "shame" of an exposé.

Dick Chamberlain, as he identified himself, used to post here (& I once had a conversation with him). Maybe still does, anonymously.

One of the roles I liked him best in was as F. Scott Fitzgerald in "The Last of the Belles" tv movie. He's convincing as the author straddling a fun-time public persona he has to keep up to survive while dealing with a chaotic personal world. With Blythe Danner and Susan Sarandon:

If you only became aware of Chamberlain during his Shogun and Thorn Bird fame, you have no idea how outrageously popular he was in the early 1960s as Dr. Kildare. Every bit as popular with young girls as The Beatles who would arrive a few years later.

All the girls in my 7th grade class wore Dr. Kildare blouses to school every day. I wanted one so badly!

R44, in the late 60s, Angela was living in LA and her kids got involved with drugs. Then they started running in circles that were Manson adjacent. Angela and her husband moved the whole family to rural Ireland to get their kids out of danger and to deal with their addiction.

He had Gayface before such a word even existed.

R50, In 1964, a then 12 year old childhood friend mailed a Richard Chamberlain photo request in care of NBC. They mailed him back a color poster of Chamberlain in Kildare scrubs, which my friend taped to his bedroom wall. His parents were so concerned that their only son might be gay, they placed him in therapy. Fast forward a few years, we became fuck buddies for a few years.

R53, your friend had excellent taste. Surely, this speaks to you, as well.

R45 - yeah The Slipper and the Rose was a stunning looking movie, but it moved at a snail's pace and the songs were a bore.

I thought it had a few catchy tunes.i alwayscwonered what happened to the actress who played Cinderella. A one hit actress?

Shit...”I always wondered”. Damn iPhone.

I remember when the Thornbirds came out and there were rumors that he was gay at that time

Saw him do Shakespeare's Richard II in Washington, DC, sometime in the 1970s. He was very good in the role. And enormously popular at the time--the audience was thrilled to be in the presence of such a celebrity.

r9, he wasn't the love interest of Barbara Stanwyck, he played a priest. But he had a love affair with her niece or grandaughter Meggie, played by Rachel Ward.

I was about 13 when THE THORN BIRDS came on tv, and that scene with naked Richard Chamberlain!! It made me tingly all over.

[QUOTE] Angela and her husband moved the whole family to rural Ireland to get their kids out of danger and to deal with their addiction.

R51, it was Lansbury's lifelong gay friend Hurd Hatfield [Dorian Gray] who suggested the move to Ireland. He had been living there for some years.

I saw Chamberlain at the Pasadena Playhouse a few years ago in "The Heiress," with Julia Duffy and Heather Tom.

What? No love for his villain in The Towering Inferno? How about his Aramis in the Three/Four Musketeers?

[quote]I thought it had a few catchy tunes.i alwayscwonered what happened to the actress who played Cinderella. A one hit actress?

No, her name was Genna Craven and she had a fairly successful stage, TV and film career centered in London. Off the top of my head, she starred in the original Pennies From Heaven miniseries with Bob Hoskins, a charming BBC TV version of She Loves Me, hit revivals of South Pacific and Private Lives, that Wagner film with Richard Burton, etc., etc., etc. She had been a near complete unknown before Slipper and stayed busy until fairly recently.

^ Sorry, Gemma Craven, not Genna. Typo.

He starred as Henry Higgins in an early 1980s Broadway revival of MFL.

^ That was a national tour that played a stop on Broadway. In the late 1990s he played Captain von Trapp in a SOM tour that ended up on Broadway and ran for a year or two.

I was slightly off above at r68. That SOM opened on Broadway in 1998 as the first Broadway revival. It ran for almost a year and a half, during which time Chamberlain replaced the original Captain and then took the show on a long tour after it closed in New York.

"Road company" pretty much sums up Chamberlain as an actor. A pleasant presence, no geat depth but he won't embarrass himself or anyone else.

Didn't he recently play the priest (originally played by Max von Sydow) in some awful new stage version of The Exorcist in a little theater in LA? I think the bad reviews kept it from going any further.

He has had an extensive and varied career on television, film, and stage.

I loved his Aramis.

Loved Shogun. and The Thornbirds and Dr Kildare . Handsome guy !

Photographed at home in his bedroom.

I worked on a play with Richard in the early 1980s. He was handsome, very polite and professional but kind of a cypher. On stage and off.

Dick wasn't really a great actor, was he. But he had a lot of fans.

"The Last Wave"

Richard Chamberlain and Robert Redford getting physical.

Baby Shoma from 2011.

Oops! Wrong thread!

It's impossible to think of Dr. Kildare without thinking of Ben Casey. It's like thinking of Bewitched without I Dream Of Jeannie or The Addams Family without the Munsters.

Or The Partridge Family without The Brady Bunch.

Vince Edwards, aka Dr. Ben Casey, got his start in LA as a nude physique model. The photo below is well documented, not shopped.

More Vince Edwards.

He once gave my husband a rudely religious glare.

Vince or Dick?

Vince had been a collegiate swimmer who later took up body building.

Wow, didn't know Ben Casey did "physique" magazines!

Chamberlain didn't come out until his career was just about over. He remained closeted for most of the AIDS epidemic years.

Did Vince Edwards really go to college? He seemed of more working class roots.

Early in his career his hair was bleached platinum blonde and he played a Mr. Universe type in a cheap wrestling movie that showed off his physique.

There are some clips of him singing on Hollywood Palace and a clip of him on What's My Line? talking about his night club appearances as a singer. Must find them! I think his voice was surprisingly good.

RC had a slammin' body when he was younger

R91: Edwards went to college on a scholarship--Ohio State and somewhere else. Working class roots aren't a barrier to that, btw. I have them as well as a PhD. WEe don't all become bourgeois poseurs in the process.

Yvette Mimieux sounds like a cunt

A friend told me she used to walk an ocelot on a leash in Hollywood. He had to go on a boat ride with her and the ocelot. Freaked him out. Also, she did Dr. Kildare -- an episode called "Tiger Tiger."

She bearded him on a couple dates/photo ops. I'm guessing the ocelot on a boat thing was one of them. She was a 60s starlet who wound up making bad tv movies. But she married well.

I saw him in Night of the Iguana in the 70s and he was good.

There was Richard and there was Vince Edwards...

And you know what Darwin Porter wrote about their 3way with Brando...

Well, if Darwin Porter wrote it then it most certainly didn't happen