Hugh O’Brian passes
The sad news comes to us that Hugh O’Brian, the actor who played Wyatt Earp on the television during my youngest days, has passed at the age of 91. He was a homeboy of mine, too, born in Rochester, New York as Hugh Charles Krampe. Like most of his generation, he was a veteran, according to Wiki;
O’Brian dropped out of the University of Cincinnati after one semester to enlist in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. At seventeen, he became the youngest Marine drill instructor.
After World War II ended, O’Brian moved to Los Angeles. He planned on becoming a lawyer and had been accepted at Yale University in the fall of 1947. He was dating an actress and attending her rehearsals of the Somerset Maugham’s play Home and Beauty when the the lead actor failed to show up. Director Ida Lupino asked him to read the lines. He got the part and the play received a tremendous review. An agent offered to sign O’Brian.
He changed his name after the show’s playbill misspelled his name as “Hugh Krape.” “I decided right then I didn’t want to go through life being known as Huge Krape, so I decided to take my mother’s family name,
Category: We Remember
Dang. I loved that show and him as Wyatt Earp
Marine Corps DI at age 17? Things that make you go “hmmmmm”.
Yeah it wasn’t him, it was some other guy named Hugh Krampe. He was 18 years, two months and 11 days old when he was assigned to his first platoon at MCRD, San Diego, Calif.
😉
https://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/1983/03/second-youngest-di#
18? what a fucking slacker. Jesus, by that time I was….working at McDonalds before enlisting.
Semper Fi..The Greatest Generation is passing before our eyes
Dude was handsome as a Marine. Even in the day we looked GOOD!
RIP Marine
Durn. I never missed an episode of ‘The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp’ or ‘Hennessey’.
Things and people are slipping away from us, little by little.
And when, oh when, will they release “Hennesey” on DVD? I have the ten-episode sampler but I want to see more!
I don’t know. Cooper passed away a while back. There may be some issues with rights to the series, which CBS ran. I wish all those old shows would be re-released on the Antenna TV channel.
There are other shows like ‘Silent Service’ that are going to be forgotten.
https://youtu.be/-cXXB4wvv1s
I wish that they’d bring back ‘Sea Hunt’ starring Lloyd Bridges. Loved that show as a kid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Hunt
‘Sea Hunt is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular in syndication for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges as former United States Navy frogman Mike Nelson, and was produced by Ivan Tors.’
Here’s more:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051311/
Great TV show.
Bad idea. You bring back “Sea Hunt,” and poor Don Shipley will never be able to handle all the SEALs and Frogmen and UDTs that will be spilling out of the woodwork. You won’t be able to buy a beer in a bar for all the underwater types that will be crowding into the place.
Oops. Didn’t consider it from that angle.
Yeah, I guess that we do in fact already have way too many leather-vested phonies claiming to be experts in underwater knife fighting.
So no return of “Sea Hunt”.
Even with wartime contingencies, I doubt that very much the DI at 17 thing too.
I’m thinking that hair cut standards were a bit relaxed then, too, judging by that picture.
Hah, that my first reaction – god help him if he strolled around a Marine base today with that haircut!
Yeah it wasn’t him, it was some other guy named Hugh Krampe. He was 18 years, two months and 11 days old when he was assigned to his first platoon at MCRD, San Diego, Calif.
😉
https://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/1983/03/second-youngest-di#
You know that Hugh Krampe is Hugh O’Brien, right?
that’sthejoke. (hence the wink, tongue in cheek)
Not that far-fetched. There was a seriuos Shortage of DIs At the time. It was common for a DI to graduate a platoon and the honor grad would be his assistant for the next cycle.
I think the lingo they used for them was “Acting Jack”.
During WW1 Chesty Puller was selected out of BootCamp to go to OCS. While he waited for orders he assisted his DI in training recruits. Of course he was 19 at the time and had attended VMI for about a year.
The following is Hugh O’Brian’s credo:
THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE:
“I do NOT believe we are all born equal. CREATED equal in the eyes of God, YES, but physical and emotional differences, parental guidance, varying environments, being in the right place at the right time, all play a role in enhancing or limiting an individual’s development.
But I DO believe every man and woman, if given the opportunity and encouragement to recognize their own potential, regardless of background, has the freedom to choose in our world. Will an individual be a taker or a giver in life? Will that person be satisfied merely to exist or seek a meaningful purpose? Will he or she dare to dream the impossible dream?
I believe every person is created as the steward of his or her own destiny, with great power for a specific purpose; to share with others, through service, a reverence for life in a spirit of love.”
Quote taken from his official bio website: http://hughobrian.me/hughs-biography.html
Correction to my comment above, there is some dispute to the youngest Marine DI in the modern era,
Hugh Krampe at 18 years, two months and 11 days old
or
David Guido, who was born on May 30, 1924 and enlisted in the
U.S. Marine Corps on Nov. 23, 1941. “I was assigned as a DI at Parris Island in January 1942 at age 17, two
months old.”
Or according to Wiki Donald “Donnie” Roan Dunagan who also claims to be the youngest.
Stephen R. Wise, PhD, curator of the Parris Island Museum, says it is nearly impossible to determine who the youngest Marine Corps DI is because in other eras, such as World War I, some DI’s were designated while they were in boot camp. “There are so many variations of the DI designation, it would be almost im- possible to name a certain person as the youngest.”
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?101239-Youngest-DIs
You know that Hugh Krampe is Hugh O’Brien, right?
I was a DI when I was seven. My little sister was my platoon.
HA!! Cracked me up.
I spent all of my time in Dad’s Brig at Camp Stone.
I was a Communcation Specialist in my house, ie “Get up and change the channel or move the rabbit ears”.
Holy chit, so that’s why I naturally gravitated to Signal!
As a kid I always wanted to be able to draw & fire a SAA (or was that a Peacemaker?) as fast as he did.
Saw something in American Rifleman a few months ago about the guy who taught those screen stars how to do it – and the rigs they used.
He carried a 12 inch Peacemaker in “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” 1955-1961. It was actually referred to as a standard Peacemaker with 12 inch barrel though according to reports in the Internet Movie Firearms Database. (Cool site by the way.) Another note I found reads, “History comes alive when it inspires the imagination, and the “Specials” have certainly inspired many an imagination over the years. In 1957, spurred on by the popularity of the Wyatt Earp TV series, Colt began to produce 12-inch barrelled “Buntline Specials” on its standard-frame Single Action Army. Some 4,000 were turned out, the last in 1974.”
I knew someone would remember. I have to be careful on my work ‘puter what I look up, and didn’t want to risk a search for info on a gun. [grin]
Wasn’t there a 14″ Peacemaker as well? I know that 12″ barrel looked impressive.
There was a 10, 12 and 16 inch in that model (from the best I can research). The 16 inch came about in 1876 with a flip up, adjustable rear sight and shoulder stock which could be attached.
That was a Buntline Special. Wyatt lost it in the Yukon River on a northern trip.
Ned Buntline made a bundle off of dime store westerns and had one made special for Wyatt. Contrary to the movie there is no evidence he used it in the fighting in Tombstone.
Wyatt Earp was famous not necessarily as a gunman, but for hoorawing cowpokes by pistol-whipping them. By the way, the Peacemaker, the Single Action Army, and the 1873 Colt are all names for the same gun. As jonp says, the story is that Buntline had some small number of them made and given to various celebrity gunmen of the time, but they were more of a gimmick gun than of any practical use. About the only things a barrel like that is good for in practical terms is either longer sight radius (which is why they were popular in metallic silhouette matches) or with the buttstock as a smallish carbine, but most folks of the day if they were worried about having a carbine would just carry a carbine length 1873 Winchester, maybe in what we now call .44-40, along with a similarly chambered Colt. (Ironically, the famous .45 Colt cartridge introduced in the 1873 Colt, was not chambered in a rifle until late in the 20th century.) 1873 was a very good year, not only was the .45 Colt introduced, it is also the year the great .45-70 was introduced- one of the all-time best cartridges.
It was a standard gimmick in 1950’s TV westerns for the star to have some kind of unique weapon.
Wyatt Earp – Colt Buntline Special
The Rifleman – Winchester Model 1892 rifle with ring lever
Wanted: Dead or Alive – “Mares Leg”, sawed-off Winchester Rifle
Shotgun Slade – Over under shotgun/rifle
Johnny Ringo – Revolver with small shotgun barrel under under main barrel
I think that pistol with the .410 shotgun barrel was popular in the Late Unplesentness with officers in the Southern Army. I think it was 6 .38 shots and one .410 – slug or buckshot at the loader’s preference and availability.
Dixie Gun Works still sells a replica of that one I’ve coveted a while now.
Thanks Slick Goodlin! I haven’t thought of Johnny Ringo in years. He carried a LeMat, as you wrote. The main gal character on the show, Karen Sharpe, played by Laura Thomas, was one of my big fantasies with her cleavage. Ah, to be that youngster again, going to bed with thoughts of her on my mind.
So you’re saying the LeMat wasn’t the only gimmick they used to keep you watching?
You go that right!
As a kid of the 50’s not only the weapons but the theme songs of the TV Cowboys are forever etched into my brain.
“Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
Brave courageous and bold.
Long live his fame and long life his glory
and long may his story be told.”
Have Gun Will Travel – Johnny Western
Johnny Yuma the Rebel – Johnny Cash
Rawhide – Frankie Lane
Rest In Peace Mr. O’Brian. Thank you for serving our country. Thank you for all the nights I came in from playing outside to slide in front of the TV and watch you wield that “Big Iron”.
I admired Mr. O’Brian’s work in “Wyatt Earp,” but I became a fan of his during his 1972 series, “Search.” He rotated with Doug McClure and Tony Franciosa as high-tech private eyes, carrying technology that today seems ancient and dated – but for the time, was cutting edge and even science fiction. The agents of “Probe” were linked by television and radio to a control room overseen by Burgess Meredith and a crew of lab-coated computer geniuses, back when a computer was the size of a Winnebago.
Mr. O’Brian didn’t want to be the sole star of the series, but he did appear in about half of the shows, with Mr. McClure and Mr. Franciosa splitting the other episodes.
A fan who met Mr. O’Brian late in his life said he was profoundly deaf, due to the gunshots he’d had to fire (and hear) while shooting “Wyatt Earp,” “Search,” and other television series and films.
RIP, Mr. O’Brian. Or, to use the language of “Search,” I would say, “Probe Control to Probe One … over, and out.”
Good show.
Hottest cars,
Coolest toys,
Babest Babe’s.
I saw “The Shootist” recently – Mr. O’Brian was the last one that John Wayne’s character killed in the movie. I read later that this was something that both men had arranged during filming.
Rest in Peace, Hugh – and thank you for your service.
That gunfight early on in the saloon was similar to an actual Hickok fight when, under fire, Hickok coolly held fire while he aimed and dropped the other guy with one round through the heart – a bit further, though, it was at 75 YARDS, not feet.
I’d forgotten that. Now I have to go watch “The Shootist” again…
So sad, we have so few that are left. They truly were the greatest generation! RIP Hugh and John Wayne! You are both my heroes!!!
Don’t forget Hugh O’Brian as USMC First Sergeant Corey in the 1966 film “Ambush Bay”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambush_Bay
A classic 1960s-vintage war movie.
Here’s something a lot of folks won’t know. Hugh O’Brian also started a foundation to develop leadership skills in young people. It bore his name. The Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation (HOBY) was founded in 1958 to develop core values in young people of community, volunteerism, and leadership.
I was part of that program in high school. Sophomore year, IIRC. We developed and ran a daylong seminar for young people that included panels with community leaders, politicians, teachers, etc.
I should have read further down before posting my comment. I also was a recipient of the award my Junior year of High School and attended a week long conference.
Hugh O’Brien’s body of work was well before my time. I learned of him when I was awarded the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Award as a Junior in high school and attended a conference put on by the foundation. RIP Sir.