Richard Chamberlain

George Richard Chamberlain was born on March 31, 1934, at the Angelus Hospital on Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. He was the second son of Elsa Winnifred (née von Benzon, later Matthews) and Charles Axion "Chuck" Chamberlain, a shop equipment salesman from Indiana. His father worked in real estate and the supermarket business, ran a refrigerator business from 1956 to 1970 and later wrote a book called A New Pair of Glasses. His older brother, William, worked with their father in the family business.

Chamberlain graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1952 and from Pomona College in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in art history and painting. He was drafted into the United States Army, served from 1956 to 1958 and reached the rank of sergeant while stationed in post-war Korea.

After co-founding the Los Angeles theater group Company of Angels, Chamberlain began appearing in television guest roles. In 1961 he became famous as Dr. James Kildare in NBC and MGM's Dr. Kildare, which ran until 1966. His recording of the show's theme reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In the late 1960s he worked in England, appearing in the BBC's The Portrait of a Lady and playing Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1969. His 1970 Hallmark Hall of Fame Hamlet was nominated for a Grammy. His 1970s films included The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Music Lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, The Towering Inferno, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Slipper and the Rose and The Last Wave.

He earned the title "King of the Mini-Series" with Centennial (1978), Shōgun (1980) and The Thorn Birds (1983). He played Allan Quatermain in King Solomon's Mines (1985) and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986), Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (1988) and Aramis again in The Return of the Musketeers (1989).

Later work included Broadway's My Fair Lady (1993 to 1994), Scrooge: The Musical on tour (2005), Spamalot on tour (2008 to 2009), The Heiress at the Pasadena Playhouse (2012), and guest roles on Will & Grace, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Leverage, Chuck, Brothers & Sisters and Twin Peaks: The Return.

Chamberlain never married and had no children. He was romantically involved with actor Wesley Eure in the 1970s. In 1977 he began a long-term relationship with actor and producer Martin Rabbett, who played his character's brother in Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. They lived in Hawaii from 1986 and had a private commitment ceremony. They separated amicably in 2010, remained close friends and, according to The New York Times, had resumed living together in Hawaii by the time of his death.

Chamberlain kept his sexuality private for most of his career to protect his work. He was outed by the French magazine Nous Deux in 1989 and confirmed he was gay in his 2003 memoir Shattered Love. In a 2010 interview with The Advocate he said there was still a tremendous amount of homophobia in the culture and that he would not advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out, citing California's Proposition 8 as evidence that acceptance was far from complete.

Chamberlain bridged the gap between 1960s television stardom and serious classical acting. Dr. Kildare made him one of the decade's best-known faces, and his Hamlet in Birmingham showed critics he was more than a heartthrob. His work in Shōgun and The Thorn Birds helped define the American television miniseries in its peak years, and he was the first actor to play Jason Bourne on screen.

Chamberlain won three Golden Globe Awards from six nominations: Best Television Star (Male) for Dr. Kildare in 1962, and Best Actor in a Television Series Drama for Shōgun and Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for The Thorn Birds. He was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Play, a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording (Hamlet, 1971) and an AACTA Award for The Last Wave. He received the EuroCinema Hawai'i Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2012.

Chamberlain recorded pop albums for MGM Records in the 1960s, including the hit "Theme from Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight)." His memoir, Shattered Love, was published in 2003.

Richard Chamberlain died on March 29, 2025, in Waimānalo, Hawaii, from complications following a stroke. He was 90, two days short of his 91st birthday. His publicist Harlan Boll confirmed the death, and Martin Rabbett released a statement saying, "Our beloved Richard is with the angels now."