29 Facts About Richard Boone

Richard Boone's mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Russia.

Richard Boone graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, California.

Richard Boone attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he was a member of Theta Xi fraternity.

Richard Boone dropped out of Stanford prior to graduation and then worked as an oil rigger, bartender, painter, and writer.

In 1941, Boone joined the United States Navy and served on three ships in the Pacific during World War II, seeing combat as an aviation ordnanceman, aircrewman, and tail gunner on Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, and ended his service with the rank of petty officer first class.

Richard Boone was then in a production of Macbeth.

Richard Boone appeared in a short-lived TV series based on the play The Front Page, and on anthology series such as Actors Studio and Suspense.

Richard Boone returned to Broadway in The Man, directed by Martin Ritt, with Dorothy Gish; it ran for 92 performances.

In 1950, Richard Boone made his screen debut as a Marine officer in Milestone's Halls of Montezuma.

Richard Boone had bigger roles in Red Skies of Montana, Return of the Texan, Kangaroo, and Way of a Gaucho.

Richard Boone had only one scene in the film, in which he gives instructions to Richard Burton, who plays the centurion ordered to crucify Christ.

Richard Boone appeared in the second Cinemascope film, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef.

Richard Boone made two films for Panoramic, which distributed through Fox: The Siege at Red River and The Raid.

Richard Boone was cast in Westerns such as Ten Wanted Men with Randolph Scott, Man Without a Star with Kirk Douglas, Robbers' Roost with George Montgomery, Battle Stations with John Lund, Star in the Dust with John Agar, and Away All Boats with Jeff Chandler.

Richard Boone had one of his best roles in The Tall T with Randolph Scott.

Richard Boone co-starred with Eleanor Parker in Lizzie and was a villain in The Garment Jungle.

Richard Boone occasionally did other acting appearances such as episodes of Playhouse 90 and The United States Steel Hour and TV movie The Right Man.

Richard Boone had a cameo as Sam Houston in The Alamo, a starring role in A Thunder of Drums and narrated a TV version of John Brown's Body.

The Richard Boone Show won a Golden Globe for Best Show in 1964.

Richard Boone returned to the mainland to appear in films such as Rio Conchos, The War Lord with Charlton Heston, Hombre with Paul Newman, and an episode of Cimarron Strip.

Richard Boone then focused on films: The Night of the Following Day with Marlon Brando, The Arrangement with Douglas for Elia Kazan, The Kremlin Letter for John Huston, and Big Jake with John Wayne.

Richard Boone did some TV movies, In Broad Daylight, Deadly Harvest, and Goodnight, My Love.

Richard Boone starred in the 1970 film Madron, the first Israeli-produced film shot outside Israel, set in the American West of the 1800s.

Richard Boone starred in The Great Niagara and Against a Crooked Sky and supported John Wayne a third time, in Wayne's final film, The Shootist.

Richard Boone did God's Gun with Leif Garrett, Lee Van Cleef, and Jack Palance.

Richard Boone appeared in The Last Dinosaur and The Big Sleep, and provided the character voice of the dragon Smaug in the 1977 animated film version of JR R Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Richard Boone was married three times: to Jane Hopper, Mimi Kelly, and Claire McAloon.

Richard Boone moved to St Augustine, Florida, from Hawaii in 1970 and worked with the annual local production of Cross and Sword, when he was not acting on television or in movies, until shortly before his death in 1981.

Richard Boone's ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii.