Robert Conrad, known in France for his seductive physique with penetrating blue eyes and his cult roles in famous television series Mysteries of the West and The Burnt Heads, died on Saturday February 8, in Malibu, California, at the age of 84.
From his real name Conrad Robert Falk, Robert Conrad was born on 1st March 1935 in a poor family in a difficult Chicago neighborhood. Often involved in street fights, he started boxing and went to the rings at the age of 16. His career as a professional boxer in the featherweight category was short and, after a few injuries, he put on the gloves and went on to odd jobs, working as a milkman, docker or crooner singer. Tired of these years of badly paid galley, he decides, in 1954, to try comedy and is engaged for insignificant roles by the theater of Chicago.
Disappointed by these experiences, he left for California and, in 1958, decided to go into the cinema. He joined the studios of Warner Bros. The television series are booming and it is therefore on the small screen that he will make the main part of his career, having to his credit only a dozen cinema films. 1959 is the year of Robert Conrad's first success with his role in the series Mission to Hawaii which features a duo of police officers running a detective agency.
The success of the "Mysteries of the West"
But it was in 1964 that the real turning point in his career took place. He is auditioned for a new series like James Bond but which takes place at the time of the conquest of the West. Robert Conrad obtains the role of James West, a secret agent reporting directly to President Grant, seconded by a partner named Artemus Gordon, played by Ross Martin. Thus were born Mysteries of the West which are hugely successful and will last until April 1969.
After appearances in Mannix and Impossible mission, Robert Conrad then filmed, in 1971, the episodes of The DA (The District Attorney), where he plays a prosecutor. After playing in 1972 in a TV movie The Adventures of Nick Carter, Robert Conrad embarks on another series of espionage, contemporary this one, The Man from Vienna. It only lasts eight episodes and the success is not there.
It was not until 1976 that the actor regained fame with The Burned Heads. He plays Major Pappy Boyington, the commander of a squadron of pilots, often drunk and all court martial, but who fought brilliantly against the Japanese during the Pacific War. Conrad is revived. This series is followed in 1978 by Colorado, where he plays a French explorer in this Western State in the XVIIIe century.
1979 was a rich year. In the series The Duke, he plays a former boxer, then in Sloane, Special Agent, he is once again a secret agent working directly under the authority of the President of the United States. That year, he also reconnects with The Mysteries of the West, turning in the tv movie The Return of the Mysteries of the West, followed in 1980 by The Mysteries of the Wild West.
He then made several films for the cinema, including in 1982 Live Murders, by Richard Brooks, alongside Sean Connery, Katherine Ross and Leslie Nielsen.
At the beginning of the 1980s, he founded his production company Chane and made chain television films slipping into the skin of a policeman as in Should Dan Malone be killed? of Jerry Jameson in 1986, of a CIA agent as in Assassin, directed by Sandor Stern in 1986, or even by a mafia chief (from Chicago) in The Godfather is too good.
In 1996, he played a brief role as a police officer in the film The Toy Race, by Brian Levant, with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the early 2000s, he was semi-retired but made the headlines in 2003 when, intoxicated, he struck the car of a young man who died two years later from complications related to the accident. .
After this heartbreaking episode, he launched himself at 73 years old, in 2008, in a new activity, hosting a show on CRN radio which brought together nearly 6 million listeners.
dates
1st March 1935: Birth in Chicago
1958: Series Mission to Hawaii
1964-1969: James West in Mysteries of the West
1976-1978: The Burnt Heads
1979 The Return of the Mysteries of the West
1982: Live Murders
2008: Show on CRN radio
February 8, 2020: Death in Malibu
