Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series The Wild Wild West, playing the sophisticated Secret Service agent James T. West. He also portrayed private investigator Tom Lopaka in Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963) and World War II ace Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976–1978) (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron).
In addition to acting, he was a singer and recorded several pop/rock songs in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Bob Conrad. He hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show (The PM Show with Robert Conrad) on CRN Digital Talk Radio beginning in 2008.[1]
Early life
Conrad was born Conrad Robert Falk in Chicago. His father, Leonard Henry Falk, was 17 years old at the time of Conrad's birth and was of German descent. His mother, Alice Jacqueline Hartman (daughter of Conrad and Hazel Hartman), was 15 years old when she gave birth, and named her son after her father.[2] She became the first publicity director of Mercury Records, where she was known as Jackie Smith. She married twice, including once to Chicago radio personality Eddie Hubbard in 1948.[3] Eddie Hubbard and Jackie Smith reportedly had a child together (born c. 1949)[4] before splitting up in 1958.[5][6][7]
After working in Chicago for several years and studying theater arts at Northwestern University, Conrad pursued an acting career.[8] One of his first paying roles was a week-long job posing outside a Chicago theater where the film Giant (1956) was screened;[9] Conrad bore a resemblance to the film's lead, actor James Dean, so his mother used her entertainment industry contacts to help him get the part intended as a publicity stunt to boost attendance at the theater.[10] Conrad also studied singing; his vocal coach was Dick Marx, the father of singer Richard Marx.[11]
Adams got a bit part for Conrad in the film Juvenile Jungle (1958).[12] Adams was supposed to appear in it, but withdrew so he could take a part in a different movie.[12] Conrad's brief non-speaking role in Juvenile Jungle enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild.[12] He had a small role in the film Thundering Jets, also in 1958.
Warner Bros.
Conrad was soon signed to an acting contract by Warner Bros. He also sang, and released several recordings with Warner Bros. Records on a variety of LPs, EPs, and SPs 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records during the late 1950s and early 1960s.[14] In 1961, he had a minor Billboard hit song in "Bye Bye Baby" which reached No. 113.[15]
Conrad and Connie Stevens, 1960Conrad and Stevens, 1961
Warner Brothers had a big success with its detective show 77 Sunset Strip, then made Hawaiian Eye, a follow-up series. Conrad starred as detective Tom Lopaka. He was introduced on Strip, then spun off into a series that ran from 1959 to 1963, both in the U.S. and overseas. During the series' run, Conrad appeared on an episode of the Warner Brothers series The Gallant Men. After Hawaiian Eye was over, Conrad starred in Palm Springs Weekend (1963).
In Mexico, Conrad signed a recording contract with the Orfeon label. He released two albums with a few singles sung in Spanish. In 1964, he guest-starred on an episode of Temple Houston, then performed in the comedic film La Nueva Cenicienta (also known as The New Cinderella). The next year, he was in the episode "Four into Zero" of Kraft Suspense Theatre, and portrayed Pretty Boy Floyd in Young Dillinger alongside his old friend Nick Adams.[16]
In 1965, Conrad began his starring role as government agent James West on the weekly series The Wild Wild West, which aired on CBS until its cancellation in 1969. He made $5,000 a week.[17] He did most of his own stunts and fight scenes during the series, and while filming the season four episode "The Night of the Fugitives", he was injured and rushed to the hospital after he dove from the top of a saloon staircase, lost his grip on a chandelier, fell 12 feet, and landed on his head.[18]
In addition to starring in The Wild Wild West, Conrad found time to work on other projects. He went to Mexico in 1967 to appear in Ven a cantar conmigo (Come, sing with me), a musical. He also formed his own company, Robert Conrad Productions, and under its auspices he wrote, starred in, and directed the Western film The Bandits (also 1967).[19]
Paul Ryan and Jake Webster
Conrad appeared in episodes of Mannix and Mission: Impossible. In 1969, he signed a three-picture deal with Bob Hope's Doan Productions. The first two films were slated to be Keene then No Beer in Heaven, but only the first movie was ever produced.[20]
In 1969, he debuted as prosecutor Paul Ryan in the TV movie D.A.: Murder One (1969). He reprised the movie in D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill (1971) and the short-lived 1971 series The D.A..[21] In 1971, He also played Deputy D.A. Paul Ryan on Adam-12, (Episode: The Radical) and in a compilation of several of the 1/2 hour "The D.A" episodes into a TV movie syndicated as "Confessions of a D.A. Man." He was also in such made-for-television movies as Weekend of Terror (1970) and Five Desperate Women (1971). He tried another TV series as American spy Jake Webster in Assignment Vienna (1972), which lasted only eight episodes.[22] He was a murderous fitness franchise promoter in a fourth season episode of Columbo ("An Exercise in Fatality", 1974). Conrad starred in the feature films Murph the Surf (1975) and Sudden Death (1977).
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Conrad briefly returned to series TV from 1976 to 1978 as legendary tough-guy World War II fighter ace Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep, retitled for its second season and in later syndication as Black Sheep Squadron in a re-tooling that failed to keep the series on the air. He directed three episodes.[23]
Despite the show's struggles in the ratings, Conrad went on to win a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.[24] He followed it with a lead part in the television miniseries Centennial (1978).[25]
The Duke and A Man Called Sloane
In 1978, Conrad starred in the short-lived TV series The Duke as Duke Ramsey, a boxer turned private eye. Conrad directed some episodes. In the late 1970s, he served as the captain of the NBC team for six editions of Battle of the Network Stars. Around this time he reprised the role of West in a pair of made-for-TV films which reunited him with his West co-star, Ross Martin, The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980).[18]
Conrad was identified in the late 1970s with his television commercials for Eveready batteries, particularly his placing of the battery on his shoulder and prompting the viewer to challenge its long-lasting power: "Come on, I dare ya".[26] The commercial was parodied frequently on American television comedies such as Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show and The Carol Burnett Show.
Conrad spent most of the 1980s starring in television movies. He played a paraplegic coach in Coach of the Year (1980), and the title role in Will: G. Gordon Liddy (1982). Both were for his own company, A Shane Productions.[28]
In 1984 Conrad and his production company produced the film, Hard Knox, an unsold pilot for a proposed TV series. He played the lead role of retired U.S. Marine Colonel Joseph Knox, who returns to his childhood home of Mount Carroll, Illinois, to teach at his alma mater, a local military prep academy. The film was shot in Mount Carroll at the former Shimer College.
Conrad played a Police Chief in the theatrically released comedy film Moving Violations (1985), and appeared in the TV movies The Fifth Missile (1986), Assassin (1986) and Charley Hannah's War (1986).[29]
In 1987, he starred as Jesse Hawkes in the short-lived TV series High Mountain Rangers with his sons Shane Conrad and Christian Conrad, about a family of wilderness rescue and law enforcement officers in Lake Tahoe. The series was canceled after 13 episodes, but was reworked for the 1989 series Jesse Hawkes, which saw Hawkes and his sons becoming bounty hunters in San Francisco. The series was canceled after 6 episodes.
1990s
Conrad appeared in the music video for Richard Marx's "Hazard", which was a No. 1 hit in 13 countries including the United States. He had a supporting role in Jingle All the Way (1996) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Conrad's later credits include an episode of Nash Bridges and the film Dead Above Ground (2002).
Conrad appeared in the movie Samurai Cowboy in 1994. The following year, he essentially rebooted High Mountain Rangers, reteaming with his sons Shane and Christian, and his second wife LaVelda Fann, in the TV movie pilot High Sierra Search and Rescue, which led to a short-lived TV series that was canceled after only eight episodes. [30]
2000s–2010s
In 2005, he ran for President of the Screen Actors Guild.[31] In 2006, Conrad recorded audio introductions for every episode of the first season of The Wild Wild West for its North American DVD release on June 6. The DVD set also included one of Conrad's Eveready battery commercials; in his introduction, Conrad stated he was flattered to be parodied by Carson. He was inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame[32] for his work on The Wild Wild West series.[33]
Beginning in 2008, he hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show (The PM Show with Robert Conrad) on CRN Digital Talk Radio.[1] He appeared in the documentary film Pappy Boyington Field (released in July 2010 on DVD) where he recounted his personal insights about the legendary Marine Corps aviator he portrayed in the television series.[34][35] His last appearance on the radio show was July 18, 2019, and Mike Garey was his co-host.
Personal life and death
Conrad and his first wife Joan were married for 25 years and had five children. They divorced amicably in 1977.[36] That same year he met his second wife LaVelda Ione Fann. He was 43 when he emceed the Miss National Teenager Pageant, which she won. Their marriage produced three children before their divorce in 2010. His two families were said to "get along famously".[37][38] Conrad was joined on some television shows by his sons, Shane and Christian, and his daughter, Nancy. Another daughter, Joan, became a television producer.[38]
Conrad was involved with a volunteer organization in Bear Valley, California, known as Bear Valley Search and Rescue, which later formed the basis for High Mountain Rangers.[41]
On March 31, 2003, while on Highway 4 in California's Sierra Nevada foothills near his Alpine County home, Conrad drove his Jaguar over the center median and slammed head-on into a Subaru driven by 26-year-old Kevin Burnett. Both men suffered serious injuries.[42] As a result, Conrad faced felony charges to which he pleaded no contest. His plea was accepted,[43] and he was convicted of drunk driving.[44]
He was sentenced to six months of house confinement, alcohol counseling, and five years' probation.[43] A civil suit filed by Kevin Burnett against Conrad was settled the following year for an undisclosed amount. In 2005, Burnett died at age 28 from perforated ulcers; his family attributed them to his difficult recovery from the crash.[45][46] Conrad suffered severe nerve injuries from the crash, leaving his right side partially paralyzed.[47]
^*1940 CENSUS PROFILE: *Conrad Robert Falk *Age: 5 *Estimated Birth Year: abt 1935 *Gender: Male *Race: White *Birthplace: Illinois *Marital Status: Single *Relation to Head of House: Stepson *Home in 1940: Chicago, Cook, Illinois *Street: Ada Street *House Number: 8957 *Inferred Residence in 1935: Chicago, Cook, Illinois *Residence in 1935: Same Place *Sheet Number: 1B *Household members: *Name: George Smith (26) *Name: Jacqueline Smith (20) *Name: Conrad Falk (5) *Birth Date: 1 Mar[ch] 1935 *Birth Location: Cook County, IL *File Number: 6008106 *Archive Collection Name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Births) *Archive repository location: Chicago, IL *Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk *Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T627_959; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 103-1267.
^Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
^Steele, Shadoe (April 25, 2007). "Shadoe Steele's Interview with Robert Conrad". Entercom Radio Network. Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania: Entercom Communications. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
