Obituary: Robert Conrad

Conrad during his prime

Actor and producer Robert Conrad, 84, who never seemed to be out of work in television from the early sixties, with Hawaiian Eye, until a bad car accident in the Sierra nearly twenty years ago put an end to his career, has died.

Conrad, born in Chicago as Conrad Robert Falk, is perhaps best known for starring in the CBS western , The Wild, Wild West, which ran from 1965 to 1969.  He was also renowned for performing his own stunts on the show.  Watching those shows, Conrad, who was rather short in stature, was almost anorexic because he was so fit.  He was also made to wear very tight pants, which he ripped numerous pairs while performing his stunts.

Anyway, he and co-star Ross Martin, who passed away in 1981 of a heart attack, were quite close friends.  He seemed to have a good sense of humor.

Conrad, who had a shitload of children from two marriages (both ending in divorce), often had his children involved in his series.  He married real young, a mere 17 years old,  to his first wife Joan Kenlay and had five children with her, but that marriage went kaput after 25 years.  Then, in the late 1970s, he took up with a way younger woman who I think was in her teens when she first met him.  Her name was LaVelda Fann.   He had three children with her, but she reportedly battled drug problems.  The pair finally divorced in 2010.  After Conrad's accident, he went into retirement.  Or he retired before, according to some sources.

He was a big Republican, often appearing on Fox News with his take on current events.  But I look at his television shows from the 1960s, and I frankly couldn't care less about what he believed.  He was real eye candy back in the day.  Not drop-dead gorgeous like John Gavin because Conrad never had the height, but he was okay all the same.  Conrad was also a close friend of Elvis Presley's, so that was another plus on his behalf.

Now I am doing this from memory here, but it seems for some years some sources had Conrad born in 1929, but I think Conrad had lied about his age for employment reasons or something to that effect.  In reality, he was born in 1935, which makes a lot more sense.

Conrad died at his home in Malibu today of  heart failure.  He would have turned 85 on March 1.

As for the 2003 car accident near his home in the Sierra Nevada, as I recall, Conrad had too much to drink, got into his Jaguar, went over the median strip,  and collided head-on with another motorist.  The motorist, Kevin Burnett, suffered severe injuries, just as Conrad did, but unlike Conrad, Burnett later died from a perforated ulcer.  He was only 28.  Conrad was convicted of DUI and sentenced to house arrest and five years probation. He later settled a civil suit with Burnett.

From the link:

Conrad Robert Falk was born on the South Side of Chicago on March 1, 1935. His father, Leonard, worked in construction and became vice president of the National Sugar Co., and his mother, Jacqueline, did PR and had clients including Patti Page and Vic Damone.

He played running back in high school, thought about a career as a boxer and, when he wasn't loading or driving a truck, sang in a trio that performed in Chicago hotels.

After standing outside theaters to drum up publicity for 1956's Giant (his mother had been dating a Warner Bros. executive, and Conrad bore a resemblance to the recently deceased James Dean), he thought he might try acting.

He attended Northwestern University, majoring in theater arts, and became friends with Rebel Without a Cause actor Nick Adams, who got him a part in Juvenile Jungle (1958).

A dozen years ago, I wrote about him here.

I don't want to forget including this clip:

I

am going to lie down in bed for a spell. I am watching "Night of the Fugitives," an episode from the fourth season of The Wild Wild West. This is the one where star Robert Conrad seriously injured himself. Near the beginning of the episode, he is doing what he did best, and that's go after the villains, and he was supposed to swing from a chandelier to the floor. Unfortunately, his timing was off and he landed on the back of his head and neck. He was badly injured, and production on the series had to stop for quite some time. The fall is in the episode; Conrad was not replaced by a stuntman there.

So I am going to watch that episode for a while.

When You're Cooped Up

in the apartment all day because of rain and snow, there isn't a whole lot to do besides watch DVDs (I refuse to look at the pundits and their corrupt analysis of Campaign 2008). I popped in one of my discs of season three of The Wild Wild West, one of my favorite shows from the 1960s.

I remember the series like it was yesterday, so I have gotten all of the volumes so far. I think what made the show work is the fact stars Robert Conrad and Ross Martin got along so well. Apparently they became best friends in real life, and, when Martin died suddenly in 1981, Conrad refused to do any more projects in connection with the series.

Conrad, as everybody knows, has been pretty much out of the limelight after being involved in a serious DUI car accident in 2003, I think it was. He was the one who was intoxicated, but he ended up getting the worst of it injury-wise. For years, he and his second wife lived up in Bear Valley, California, but last I've heard they've since moved back to southern California.

In his prime in the 1960s, though, he was quite the eye candy, despite having a wife (wife number one) and several kids to support. I am well aware of his right-leaning politics, which go back many, many years, but some things in life transcend partisan politics. I don't need that dumb shit Obama to remind me of it, either.

I can't write about WWW and not mention "the pants." I thought this Conrad interview of a couple of years ago was good:

And then there were those, um, tight pants.

"Some of the apparatus I wore wasn't visible, like the equipment I wore under those pants to protect myself from a fall," Conrad says with a chuckle. "There was stuff under my costumes to protect me from hurting my spine. So that's why they were so tight. But it was wardrobe's call.

"My granddaughter was watching the DVDs with me last night and she elbows me and says, 'Grandpa, those pants were too tight.' Everybody's a critic."

Edit, January 5: At least one of the episodes, "The Night of the Underground Terror," telecast in the third season, Conrad split his pants big time some 46 minutes into the episode. I laughed my ass off when I saw it. I am surprised another take wasn't done.

They should have titled the episode, "The Day of the Underwear Tear."