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RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN BIOGRAPHY
PART 3
Everybody now knows that Dr Kildare was a huge success, largely thanks to its charismatic young star. The downside to the fame it brought for Richard was that his life was no longer his own - screaming girls followed him wherever he went, and photographers were eager to capture him with his latest date.
Singer Clara Ray was RC's main companion during those heady days, and it was rumoured that they would marry - but the union never happened.
Richard also enjoyed his own musical success around the same time thanks to two albums and several singles, including Three Stars Will Shine Tonight, which was based on the Dr Kildare theme.
The series was eventually cancelled in 1965, but it was expected that Chamberlain would go on to bigger and better things. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy thanks to that scourge of all actors - typecasting.
Movies were pretty much out of the question following a couple of poorly-received projects during the Kildare years, so RC headed for the stage, appearing in versions of The Philadelphia Story, Private Lives and West Side Story. His Broadway debut should have been in a musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, opposite Mary Tyler Moore - but it bombed during tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia and ended up playing only four previews in New York.
Thankfully, director Richard Lester cast him in his movie Petulia which gave the actor back some credibility and the confidence to try his hand at becoming 'a real English actor' across the Atlantic.
Chamberlain originally went to the UK to appear on Eamonn Andrews' chat show, but ended up staying there for five years. His Hamlet for the Birmingham Rep was a major success, with RC acclaimed as a potential new John Barrymore.
The rest of Richard's career has been well documented, with highlights on stage, silver screen and TV. Of course, the biggest hits have been the likes of Shogun, The Thorn Birds and the Musketeer movies he made with aforementioned film-maker, Richard Lester.
There have been other, less well known successes such as RC's performance at the 1972 Chichester Festival in The Lady's Not For Burning, Peter Weir's movie The Last Wave and the superb BBC drama Portrait of a Lady, based on Henry James' novel.
Chamberlain went into analysis for four years in the early Seventies, following the teachings of Dr Brugh Joy. The actor also bought the rights to Joy's book in the hope of making it into a movie which, as yet, has not been made.
Richard has lived in Hawaii since the late 1970s after buying a house there with the pay cheque he received for starring in the dire movie, The Swarm. A few years ago he announced his intention to slip into semi-retirement to become a "Hawaiian beach bum."
However, it seems that since then RC has been even more busy than usual, taking on several TV and film projects and perhaps most notably, the roles of Professor Henry Higgins in a successful stage revival of My Fair Lady and more recently, taking over from Michael Siberry as Captain Von Trapp in the Broadway production of The Sound of Music.
Away from the bright lights of showbiz, Chamberlain is also concerned with environmental issues - particularly surrounding his beloved adopted home - and continues to paint.
So, after all these years in the limelight, is he happy? "I keep thinking my life has just begun," claims RC. "It still seems to be 'happening' and that is a great feeling. I have never been happier."
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