Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series The Wild Wild West, playing the sophisticated Secret Service agent James T. West. He also portrayed private investigator Tom Lopaka in Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963) and World War II ace Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976–1978; later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron).
In addition to acting, he was a singer and recorded several pop/rock songs in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Bob Conrad. He hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show (The PM Show with Robert Conrad) on CRN Digital Talk Radio beginning in 2008.
Early life Conrad was born Conrad Robert Falk in Chicago. His father, Leonard Henry Falk, was 17 years old at the time of Conrad's birth and was of Polish descent, the original family name having been Falkowski. His mother, Alice Jacqueline Hartman (daughter of Conrad and Hazel Hartman), was 15 years old when she gave birth, and named her son after her father.Cook Country Genealogy Certificate #6016090 She became the first publicity director of Mercury Records, where she was known as Jackie Smith. She married twice, including once to Chicago radio personality Eddie Hubbard in 1948. Eddie Hubbard and Jackie Smith reportedly had a child together (born ) before splitting up in 1958.*1940 CENSUS PROFILE:*Conrad Robert Falk*Age: 5*Estimated Birth Year: abt 1935*Gender: Male*Race: White*Birthplace: Illinois*Marital Status: Single*Relation to Head of House: Stepson*Home in 1940: Chicago, Cook, Illinois*Street: Ada Street*House Number: 8957*Inferred Residence in 1935: Chicago, Cook, Illinois*Residence in 1935: Same Place*Sheet Number: 1B*Household members:*Name: George Smith (26)*Name: Jacqueline Smith (20)*Name: Conrad Falk (5)*Birth Date: 1 Mar[ch] 1935*Birth Location: Cook County, IL*File Number: 6008106*Archive Collection Name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Births)*Archive repository location: Chicago, IL*Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk*Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T627_959; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 103-1267.Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
Conrad attended Chicago schools including South Shore High School, Hyde Park High School, the YMCA Central School, and New Trier High School. He dropped out of school at age 15 to work full-time, including loading trucks for Consolidated Freightways and Eastern Freightways, and driving a milk truck for Chicago's Bowman Dairy.
After working in Chicago for several years and studying theater arts at Northwestern University, Conrad pursued an acting career. One of his first paying roles was a week-long job posing outside a Chicago theater where the film Giant (1956) was screened; Conrad bore a resemblance to the film's lead, actor James Dean, so his mother used her entertainment industry contacts to help him get the part intended as a publicity stunt to boost attendance at the theater. Conrad also studied singing; his vocal coach was Dick Marx, the father of singer Richard Marx.
Career Early performances In 1957, Conrad met actor Nick Adams while visiting James Dean's gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana. They became friends and Adams suggested that Conrad move to California to pursue acting.Zylstra, F. (March 13, 1964) "TV actor, former Chicagoan, likes to lend hand in kitchen", Chicago Tribune
Adams got a bit part for Conrad in the film Juvenile Jungle (1958). Adams was supposed to appear in it, but withdrew so he could take a part in a different movie. Conrad's brief non-speaking role in Juvenile Jungle enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild. He had a small role in the film Thundering Jets, also in 1958.
Warner Bros.
Conrad was soon signed to an acting contract by Warner Bros. He also sang, and released several recordings with Warner Bros. Records on a variety of LPs, EPs, and SPs 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961, he had a minor Billboard hit song in "Bye Bye Baby" which reached No. 113.Whitburn, Joel. Top Pop Singles, 12th ed.
At Warner, he appeared in the second season of the James Garner series Maverick (episode: "Yellow River", 1959). He was featured in other shows, either for Warner or Ziv Television, including Highway Patrol, Lawman, Colt .45 (playing Billy the Kid), Sea Hunt, The Man and the Challenge, and Lock Up.
Hawaiian Eye
Warner Brothers had a big success with its detective show 77 Sunset Strip, then made Hawaiian Eye, a follow-up series. Conrad starred as detective Tom Lopaka. He was introduced on Strip, then spun off into a series that ran from 1959 to 1963, both in the U.S. and overseas. During the series' run, Conrad appeared on an episode of the Warner Brothers series The Gallant Men. After Hawaiian Eye was over, Conrad starred in Palm Springs Weekend (1963).
In Mexico, Conrad signed a recording contract with the Orfeon label. He released two albums with a few singles sung in Spanish. In 1964, he guest-starred on an episode of Temple Houston, then performed in the comedic film La Nueva Cenicienta (also known as The New Cinderella). The next year, he was in the episode "Four into Zero" of Kraft Suspense Theatre, and portrayed Pretty Boy Floyd in Young Dillinger alongside his old friend Nick Adams.Major, Jack (1965). "Robert Conrad Interview", Akron Beacon Journal, August 22, 1965.
The Wild Wild West
In 1965, Conrad began his starring role as government agent James West on the weekly series The Wild Wild West, which aired on CBS until its cancellation in 1969. He made $5,000 a week. He did most of his own stunts and fight scenes during the series, and while filming the season four episode "The Night of the Fugitives", he was injured and rushed to the hospital after he dove from the top of a saloon staircase, lost his grip on a chandelier, fell 12 feet, and landed on his head.
In addition to starring in The Wild Wild West, Conrad found time to work on other projects. He went to Mexico in 1967 to appear in Ven a cantar conmigo (Come, sing with me), a musical. He also formed his own company, Robert Conrad Productions, and under its auspices he wrote, starred in, and directed the Western film The Bandits (also 1967).Martin, B. (April 29, 1966). "Tony Curtis joins 'Waves'", Los Angeles Times
Roles as Paul Ryan and Jake Webster Conrad appeared in episodes of Mannix and Mission: Impossible. In 1969, he signed a three-picture deal with Bob Hope's Doan Productions. The first two films were slated to be Keene then No Beer in Heaven, but only the first movie was ever produced.Martin, B. (March 22, 1969) "MOVIE CALL SHEET", Los Angeles Times
In 1969, he debuted as prosecutor Paul Ryan in the TV movie D.A.: Murder One (1969). He reprised the role in D.A.: Conspiracy to Kill (1971) and the short-lived 1971 series The D.A..Walker, J. (September 25, 1971) "Robert Conrad: Law and order with a briefcase", Chicago Tribune In 1971, he also played Deputy D.A. Paul Ryan on Adam-12 (Episode: "The Radical"), and in a compilation of several of the 1/2 hour "The D.A" episodes into a TV movie syndicated as Confessions of a D.A. Man. He was also in such made-for-television movies as Weekend of Terror (1970) and Five Desperate Women (1971). He tried another TV series as American spy Jake Webster in Assignment Vienna (1972), which lasted only eight episodes."Robert Conrad takes 'assignment: Vienna'", June 18, 1972, The Washington Post and Times-Herald He was a murderous fitness franchise promoter in a fourth season episode of Columbo ("An Exercise in Fatality", 1974). Conrad starred in the feature films Murph the Surf (1975) and Sudden Death (1977).
Baa Baa Black Sheep Conrad briefly returned to series TV from 1976 to 1978 as legendary tough-guy World War II fighter ace Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep, retitled for its second season and in later syndication as Black Sheep Squadron in a re-tooling that failed to keep the series on the air. He directed three episodes.Daniels, M. (January 8, 1978), "Robert Conrad is flying high as 'Pappy' Boyington", Chicago Tribune
Despite the show's struggles in the ratings, Conrad went on to win a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
Centennial Conrad followed Black Sheep Squadron with a significant lead part in the lengthy television miniseries Centennial (1978), which was based on James Michener's book of the same name. Conrad played the pioneering French Canadian trapper who went by only one name, Pasquinel, and partnered with Scotsman Alexander McKeague, played by UK actor Richard Chamberlain. Their partnership in the story opening anchors the first 8 hours of the epic adventure's beginnings, with Conrad's character being regarded as the most popular of the entire series by many fans of both the show and Michener's best-selling book. The original broadcast of Centennial consisted of 12 episodes broadcast once a week, and most were about two hours long. Since Conrad’s major role is concentrated in the beginning, he had roughly 5 hours of screen time over two months of episodes, covering a period of 20 years in the storyline before his character dies and the story shifts to the next generation. Native Americans at the time also praised the accuracy of how the different tribes were portrayed when trappers befriended them and set up trade routes, long before other settlers and soldiers made any contact with the indigenous tribes of the Great Plains. Pasquinel marries an Arapaho chief's daughter "Clay Basket" and has two sons with her, while simultaneously being married to a silversmith's German daughter back in St. Louis. The theme of racial prejudice against Native Americans in that era was a prominent part of the storyline, and shapes what happens to the French trapper's "halfbreed" sons in later episodes. Conrad's experience as a Hollywood stuntman as well as a star was also evident in this role, as the French trapper was a scrappy, rugged, charming, courageous, romantic, strong and powerful mountain man, and many felt Conrad's physical fitness and manly persona exemplified that archetype, with the delivery of his signature line about why the tribes could trust him: "Because I am Pasquinel, and I come to you unafraid." Conrad expressed great pride in that role and series fans to this day feel Conrad's iconic episodes are the strongest part of the entire series, because Pasquinel & McKeag alongside Michael Ansara as the Arapaho Chief give the opening of Centennial an epic, adventurous feel that sets the tone for literally everything that follows.
The Duke and A Man Called Sloane In 1978, Conrad starred in the short-lived TV series The Duke as Duke Ramsey, a boxer turned private eye. Conrad directed some episodes. In the late 1970s, he served as the captain of the NBC team for six editions of Battle of the Network Stars. Around this time he reprised the role of West in a pair of made-for-TV films which reunited him with his West co-star, Ross Martin, The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980).
Conrad was identified in the late 1970s with his television commercials for Eveready batteries, particularly his placing of the battery on his shoulder and prompting the viewer to challenge its long-lasting power: "Come on, I dare ya". The commercial was parodied frequently on American television comedies such as Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show and The Carol Burnett Show.