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RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN BIOGRAPHY
PART 2
While at Pomona, Richard appeared in such plays as George Washington Slept Here, King Lear, The Lady's Not For Burning (which he later starred in professionally to great acclaim) and Arms and the Man.
So, what eventually made him change careers? "I was up in a room in my senior year - a little room I had to myself," explained Chamberlain. "I could see the drama department through this little window, and I thought, 'I don't want to be up here alone... I want to be down there with them. I want to be with people'."
There was another reason, too - RC found that acting prevented him from being the shy young man he'd become. "Some people grow up fast, I didn't for some reason," he later said. "I stayed in semi-hibernation for a long time. In college I was a hermit. I just sat in my little room and painted. Then I discovered acting - it seemed like a place where you could be free."
Richard graduated from college in 1956 and was immediately drafted into the army and sent to Korea. The conflict was over, but he reached the rank of sergeant during his 16-month tour of duty. "I nearly died of boredom," claims RC. "I think what I got out of it was a feeling that I could survive anything."
After the army, Chamberlain decided to make a go of acting and went off to study at New York's prestigious Actors' Studio, run by Lee Strasberg, which had gained a reputation for spawning a new breed of 'Method' actors (including Marlon Brando, Eli Wallach and Rod Steiger) who were at the time gaining plaudits.
However, Richard soon realised it was not for him. "They all took themselves too seriously," says RC. "I would laugh at myself before I went that far." Instead, Chamberlain headed back East to LA, where he enrolled in teacher Jeff Corey's acting classes.
To make ends meet while auditioning, Richard worked as a waiter and chauffeur - until his big break came along.
Chamberlain had been taken on in 1959 by influential agent Monique James, who worked for MCA. Within a short time he had his first job - in Gunsmoke. Other small roles followed in several TV shows before MGM signed him as a contract player after seeing him in the movie A Thunder of Drums.
In 1961, Richard made a pilot for a proposed comedy Western called The Paradise Kid, which never made it to our screens. Although disappointing at the time, it turned out to be a good move, enabling the young actor to take the role in another new show, Dr Kildare.
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