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He is best remembered for his many leading roles in action �?? adventures movies and made-for-television movies. Born Richard Egan in San Francisco, California, he was attending the University of San Francisco when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and he immediately dropped out to join the US Army. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Army, where he would only admit that he taught soldiers judo and bayonet and knife fighting. He would never talk about what else he did in the war. After the war, he returned to the University of San Francisco for his bachelor's degree, and used his GI Bill to earn a Master's Degree from Stanford University, becoming a teacher for several years at Northwestern University before moving on to Hollywood. His first role was an uncredited one playing a police detective in the movie "The Story of Molly X" (1949). From there, he moved on to more solid roles. While handsome, he was considered too serious and humorless to be credible in anything other than action-adventure movies, and limited his roles to that form. He performed well in such action films as "Flame of Araby" (1951), "The Battle of Apache Pass" (1952), "Blackbeard the Pirate" (1952), "Khyber Patrol" (1954), "Seven Cities of Gold" (1955), and the Elvis Presley film, "Love Me Tender" (1957). He was well known for helping other struggling actors get their "big break" into the movies. After dating actress Susan Hayward for several months, on June 7, 1958, he married Patricia Hardy; they would have five children. Patricia was the only woman he would marry, and he remained faithful to her throughout their long marriage. He would continue to act in such films as "Esther and the King" (1960), "The 300 Spartans" (1962), and the television movie "Mission to Glory" (1977). His last role was in the television series, "Capitol" (1982). He died in Los Angeles, California, of prostate cancer, at the age of 65, just nine days before his birthday. (bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson)
Source: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1532
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