Hugh O'Brian had the term "beefcake" written about him during his nascent film years in the early 1950s, but he chose to avoid the obvious typecast as he set up his career. O'Brian was born Hugh Charles Krampe in Rochester, New York, to Ohio-born parents Edith Lillian and his clinic in Africa. Struck by the impassioned work being done by Schweitzer, O'Brian set up his own program to help develop young people into future leaders. O'Brian was awarded honorary degrees by several prestigious institutions of higher learning. The perennial bachelor finally "settled down" and tied the knot at age 81 with longtime companion Virginia Barber, who was close to three decades his junior. They lived in his Benedict Canyon home. Hugh died on September 5, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California, of natural causes.
Was once a soda-jerk at Schwabs drug store on Sunset Boulevard.
Attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, but did not graduate.
Attended the (now defunct) Kemper Military School in Booneville, Missouri.
He was one of the first celebrities to frontline tours of Vietnam at the request of the State Department, Hugh once staged and directed a company of "Guys and Dolls" which toured Vietnam, Thailand and Japan for the troops.
The Hugh OBrian Acting Awards Competition was developed in 1964 at the University of California, Los Angeles with cash awards going to acting talents.
Was awarded one of the space communitys highest honors with the 1972 Freedom Award for his variety of space-oriented projects, including the Hugh OBrian Youth Foundation seminars at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Once recorded an album of popular songs and sang on the Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore and Jackie Gleason variety shows.
Hughs vast investments over the years have been wise and fruitful with dividends paying well in stocks and bonds, real estate, bowling alleys, a building equipment firm, a theatre-in-the-round, an oil syndicate and his own television production company.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1992.
Hugh OBrian and teacher Virginia Barber had dated for 18 years before their marriage on June 25, 2006, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. This was his first and only marriage; her second. She was 54; he was 81. The Rev. Robert H. Schuller , pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, officiated, and the couple was serenaded by close friend Debbie Reynolds. Dubbed "A Wedding to Die For", the ceremony concluded with a cocktail reception.
Had played the last character killed on screen by John Wayne , in The Shootist .
Elected Freshman Class president at Los Angeles City College.
He became the youngest drill instructor in the Marine Corps, and during his four years of service received a coveted Fleet appointment to the Naval Academy, which he declined. In 1972, OBrian was awarded one of the nations highest honors, the Freedom Through Knowledge Award, sponsored by the National Space Club in association with NASA. In 1974, he was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal, highest award of the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge, as well as the Globe and Anchor Award from the Marine Corps. In 1976, the Veterans of Foreign Wars also honored him with an award.
Broke into acting by happenstance. Dating an actress in Los Angeles at the time, he visited her at a couple of her rehearsals for a play. The director asked Hugh to step in after the leading man dropped out of the show. An Los Angeles Times reporter saw the production and gave Hugh excellent reviews.
Developed a friendship with Marilyn Monroe after the two co-starred in Theres No Business Like Show Business .
He was one of the few actors who has appeared in a Bruce Lee movie ( Game of Death ), a John Wayne movie ( The Shootist ) and an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie ( Twins ).
He was a guest at the 2012 Memphis Film Festivals "A Gathering of Guns 4: A TV Western Reunion" at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
Had appeared with Julie Adams four films: The Lawless Breed , The Man from the Alamo , The Stand at Apache River and Killer Force .
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6613 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
Dedicated much of his life working for the Hugh OBrian Youth Leadership (HOBY), a non-profit development program for high school scholars.
Hughs paternal grandparents, Frederick Krampe and Wilhelmina Oldenburger, were German immigrants. Hughs maternal grandfather, Leo Marks, was born in Ohio, to German Jewish parents, while Hughs maternal grandmother, Mary Alice Luker, had deep roots in the United States, going back to the 1600s (she had English and Scottish ancestry).
He was a staunch Republican and conservative.
He was known to be a very private person.
Hugh OBrian was one of the founders of the Thailans, a show-business charitable organization formed in 1955 to raise money for children with mental health problems. In 1964, he established the "Hugh OBrian Acting Awards" competition at Westwoods University of California, Los Angeles.
Born Hugh Krampe in Rochester, N.Y., on April 19, 1925, Hugh enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18 years of age in 1943 and was assigned as a drill instructor in San Diego. With hopes of becoming a lawyer, OBrian was scheduled to begin attending Yale University on the G.I. Bill in the fall of 1947. He spent the spring and summer in Los Angeles, working to earn enough money to buy a car to drive east, including working at Schwabs Sunset Strip Drugstore as a ice-cream-soda-bar-jerk, but had an unexpected change of plans when the actress he was dating began rehearsals for the Somerset Maugham play "Home and Beauty" at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. "If I wanted to see her, I had to go to rehearsals," recalling in a 2009 Los Angeles Times interview. When the leading man didnt show up on the second or third night of rehearsals, OBrian was asked to read the leading mans role. "After about four days, they realized the guy wasnt going to come back... We did the show and a reporter for the L.A. Times came down to see it and the next day, he wrote a tremendous review... Thats how I got started." The shows playbill, however, misspelled his name. "They left the m out of Krampe," OBrian said in a 2013 L.A.Times interview. "I decided right then I didnt want to go through life being known as Hugh Krape, so I decided to take my mothers family name, OBrien. But they misspelled it as OBrian and I just decided to stay with that." A third-billed starring role as a wheelchair-bound paraplegic in the Ida Lupino-directed 1950 movie drama "Never Fear" marked what OBrian, at age 25, later described as his "real beginning" as an actor. A contract with Universal Studios followed.
In what was described as "the wedding to die for," in June 2006, at age 81, OBrian wed 54-year-old Virginia Barbara for the first time. He and his long-time girlfriend wed at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. "I said goodbye, early this Monday morning, (September 5, 2016), to my favorite cowboy," his wife wrote upon his death at 91 years of age, "I was one lucky cowgirl." OBrian is survived by his wife Virginia, his brother, Don Krampe; and several nieces and nephews.
OBrians most enduring legacy is off-screen. More than 375,000 high school sophomores selected by their schools have gone through his "Hugh OBrian Youth Leadership" organization, which was founded "to inspire and develop our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service and innovation." The non-profit organization grew out of an invitation to OBrian from Dr. Albert Schweitzer to visit the medical missionary, a 1952 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, at his famed Africa hospital. OBrian, at age 33, spent nine days working as a volunteer at the hospital on the banks of the Ogooue River in Gabon during the summer of 1958. For OBrian, it was a life-changing experience. After dinner each evening, OBrian and Schweitzer would spend hours talking. As OBrian was getting ready to depart down river, he later recalled, Schweitzer took his hand and asked, "Hugh, what are you going to do with this?" On his flight back to the United States, OBrian reflected on Schweitzers comment that "the most important part of education is teaching young people to think for themselves".
Handsome, square-jawed and athletically fit, the dark-haired Hugh OBrian appeared in a string of films and television anthology series in the years before he became a star portraying the real-life most celebrated peace officer and lawman of the Old West - "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," which ran on ABC Television from 1955-1961. Until "The life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" debuted in September 1955, most TV Westerns - "The Lone Ranger," "Hopalong Cassidy," the singing cowboys series - were aimed at adolescent boys. "Wyatt Earp," on the other hand, was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic. The real Earp lived from 1848 to 1929. TVs first adult western, "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" became a top-20-rated television network (ABC) hit series until 1960, but it was canceled the following year after being supplanted by the avalanche of other adult Westerns. Critics quickly praised it making OBrian a household name. Portraying what the shows theme song described as the "brave, courageous and bold" frontier lawman, OBrian wore a black frock coat, a gold brocade vest, a string black tie and a flat-brimmed black hat - and he kept the peace with the help of a "Buntline Special"; a.45 revolver with an extra-long barrel. In portraying the sheriff Wyatt Earp, OBrian at age 30, became known for his quick draw. "I didnt want to force the cinema photographer and the director into having to cut away whenever that happened; I wanted it to be realistic," OBrian reported in a 2005 "EMMY Archive of American Television" interview. OBrian spent hundreds of hours practicing the draw, the result of which, he said, "became a very big promotional tool ... and everybody talked about my quick draw." During the series run, OBrian separated from Earp. He did it by doing a lot of out-side acting - on anthology television series such as "Playhouse 90" and "Desilu Playhouse." OBrian continued to work frequently in movies, television and theater through the 1990s, although he never again achieved the prominence he enjoyed as Wyatt Earp. A stint on Broadway, replacing the original star Andy Griffith for Griffiths one week vacation from the musical, (01/04/1960-to-01/10/1960) performing the lead role of "Destry" (at his age of 35) opposite Dolores Gray as "Frenchy" starring in the stage musical comedy "Destry Rides Again" (04/23/1959-06/18/1960; 472 performances). Opening on December 25, 1961 in an extremely short run, closing after 24 performances on January 13, 1962, OBrian was the lead role performing as "Romain" in the Broadway play "First Love." Decades later, OBrian showed up as Wyatt Earp in two 1989 television episodes of the TV western "Paradise." He also appeared as Earp in the 1991 Kenny Rogers TV miniseries "The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw." And he starred in "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone," a 1994 TV movie that included flash-backs to scenes from his original filmed ABC television series. As OBrian once said of the TV western that made him a star: "Its been a great horse, and she keeps coming around the corral." Among his post-"Wyatt Earp" film credits were "Come Fly With Me," "Africa - Texas Style," "The Shootist" and "Twins." He also starred in the 1972-73 NBC adventure series "Search," did more stage work and made guest appearances on television series such as Irwin Allens "Fantasy Island" and Aaron Spellings "The Love Boat".
He dated his wife for 18 years before they married.
