Richard Chamberlain, Heartthrob TV who became a serious actor, dies at 90

Richard Chamberlain, who has become famous as a star of the heart of the television series “Dr. Kildare “in the early 1960s, proved his courage by becoming a serious stage actor and went to a new wave of recognition while the first omnipresent man of the 1980s. He was 90 years old.

A spokesperson Harlan Boll said that the cause was complications from a stroke.

Mr. Chamberlain was only 27 years old when he made his debut in the title role of the young idealistic intern on “Dr. Kildare “of NBC, based on the series of films of the 1930s and 40s. With his beautiful appearance in California and his discreet charm, he became a star overnight, would have received 12,000 fans per week during the five-year race of the program (1961-66).

Shortly after the end of the series, he moved to England, determined to shake off his pretty image by training as a serious actor. In 1969, he played Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theater and surprised the British critics, who called him assured, graceful and courageous. “Anyone who comes to this production to make fun of a popular American television actor, Richard Chamberlain, playing Hamlet will be in a deep disappointment,” said a review of the Times of London.

After five years, he returned to the United States and notable and screen roles, but it was television, and in particular the format of the mini-series, which restored its major star status. This started with a Scottish trapper role in the casting of the whole “centenary” in 12 parts in 1978, while viewers began a brief but intense romance with this new form of programming, which combined the ambition of the film of feature films with the many hours necessary to tell stories large in detail.

For Mr. Chamberlain, the phenomenon only reached its full strength when it played its frying romantic head of the 17th century in “Shogun” in 1980, attracting a new generation of fans. He followed this in 1983 with his representation of Ralph de Bricassart, the young priest tortured in the saga “The Thorn Birds”, making him a 49-year-old sexual symbol and the unofficial title “King of the Mini-Series”.

Mr. Chamberlain received appointments at the Emmy Award for “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun”, as well as for “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story” (1985) – in which he played Raoul Wallenberg, the hero of the resistance of the Second World War – and for “The Count of Monte Cristo” (1975). He won three Golden Globes during his career, for “The Thorn Birds” and “Shogun”, and as a best television actor for “Dr Kildare” in 1963.