Richard Long

Richard Long
Born	December 17, 1927(1927-12-17) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	December 21, 1974 (aged 47) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1946 – 1974

Richard Long (December 17, 1927 – December 21, 1974) was an American actor best known for his leading roles in several ABC television series, including The Big Valley and Nanny and the Professor.

Early life

Long was the fifth of six children born in Chicago, Illinois, to Sherman D. Long and the former Dale McCord. Sherman Long was a commercial artist who operated his own studio. Mrs. Long was a homemaker. The family lived in several locations in Illinois before settling in Evanston near Chicago. Long attended grammar school in Evanston, Waller High School in Chicago, and then the Evanston Township High School. In 1944, the family relocated to Hollywood, California, and Long attended Hollywood High School for his senior year. Long said that as a teenager he had "no intention of becoming an actor. I took senior drama class because it was a snap course, and I needed the credit for my English requirement."^[1]

At Hollywood High School, Long caught the eye of a talent scout from Universal-International by accident. Casting director Jack Murton gave a ride to a couple of students and asked them if a school play was scheduled. The boys told Murton about the excellent male lead actor, Richard Long.^[2] In 1946, Long was hence cast in his first film, Tomorrow Is Forever as Drew, the son of Claudette Colbert. The role had been unfilled for months, and producers selected Long who most closely matched the credentials required.^[3]

Early in his career, Long appeared in several films as a juvenile lead, including four of the nine Ma and Pa Kettle pictures. He was cast as Tom Kettle, one of the sons of the characters played by Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main.^[4] His second film was the Orson Welles's The Stranger as Noah, the brother of Loretta Young's character. He also played "Jeff Taylor" in The Life of Riley and played "Frank James" in the 1950 movie Kansas Raiders. He then moved into leading man status in horror movies such as Cult of the Cobra (1954), and House on Haunted Hill (1959) before he achieved considerable success in television, including the series Bourbon Street Beat (1959-1960).^[5]

He appeared in such 1960s classic television shows as The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

In 1963, Long was cast in the MGM romantic musical Follow the Boys, along with costars Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, and Roger Perry.^[6]

In 1965, at the age of thirty-eight, Long began his role as attorney Jarrod Barkley, oldest son to rancher Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck), in 112 episodes of The Big Valley, the last of the major Four Star Television series, a Western which ran on ABC from 1965–1969. The "Valley" is the San Joaquin Valley near Stockton, California. The series was set in the 1870s. Long's other The Big Valley costars were Peter Breck, Linda Evans, and Lee Majors, who played the out-of-wedlock son of Victoria's late husband Tom. Long also directed some of The Big Valley episodes.^[7] In 1953, Long had costarred with Stanwyck in the film All I Desire.^[8]

In 1970–1971, he and Juliet Mills (older sister of Hayley Mills) starred in the ABC sitcom Nanny and the Professor. Long played widowed college professor Harold Everett, and Mills was Phoebe Figalilly, the English housekeeper and nanny for Long's three children.^[9]

In 1974, Long appeared on the game show Match Game.^[10] He also finished a television movie called Death Cruise, which turned out to be his last work.

Death

Long had cardiac problems throughout his adult life and had suffered a heart attack in the latter 1950s. As a boy, he had suffered pneumonia, which apparently weakened his heart. He was also a heavy smoker and drinker. He died in 1974 after suffering multiple heart attacks at Tarzana Treatment Centers in Los Angeles. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Personal life

Long served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He was twice married. His first wife of fourteen months, actress Suzan Ball (a cousin of Lucille Ball) died of cancer in 1955 at the age of twenty-one. In 1957, Long married actress and model Mara Corday (birth name Marilyn Watts), with whom he had three children, Carey (born 1957), Valerie (born 1958), and Gregory (born 1960).

A few years after her husband's passing in 1974, Corday's friend Clint Eastwood offered her a chance to return to filmmaking with a role in his 1977 film The Gauntlet.

Long was a brother-in-law of actor Marshall Thompson, with whom he appeared in the 1955 film Cult of the Cobra.

References

External links

• Richard Long at Find a Grave
• Richard Long at the Internet Movie Database