Richard Crenna

Sturdy lead and character player who first gained attention as a squeaky-voiced juvenile on radio serials ("A Date with Judy", "Burns and Allen") and as the none-too-bright, love-sick teen Walter Denton on "Our Miss Brooks" (moving with the series when it transferred to TV, 1952-56). Although Crenna entered films in 1952 and made several features during the 50s (including a 1956 adaptation of "Our Miss Brooks"), he basically made the transition to adult roles as the star of such TV series as "The Real McCoys" (1957-63; as son Luke) and "Slattery's People" (1964-65; as an idealistic state representative).

In films regularly since the mid-60s, Crenna displayed his versatility as a criminal trying to get his hands on a heroine-stuffed doll in "Wait Until Dark" (1967), the noble commander of a spaceship running out of oxygen when it can't return to Earth in "Marooned" (1969) and the gang boss in Jean-Pierre Melville's swansong, "Un flic" (1972). In the 70s Crenna kept very busy, but in lesser fare including "The Man Called Noon" (1973), "Wild Horse Hank" (1979), and the TV-movies "Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell" (1978) and the tepid remake of "Double Indemnity" (1974).

Crenna's periodic attempts to find another hit TV series have failed ("All's Fair", "It Takes Two", "Pros and Cons"), but he has always been a reliable performer. In the late 70s Crenna appeared in more acclaimed TV work with the historical miniseries "Centennial" (1978) and the hard-hitting, socially relevant telefilm "A Case of Deadly Force" (1986). He won an Emmy for his fine performance in the well-intentioned "The Rape of Richard Beck" (1985) as a macho, sexist cop who must re-evaluate his ideas about rape victims when he becomes one himself. Tough cops became a staple for Crenna, especially his Lt. Frank Janek in a series of TV-movies lasting a decade beginning with "Doubletake" (1985). His feature film work was more visible as well: as the cuckold in the steamy noir remake "Body Heat" (1981), as the dishonest gin champion in Garry Marshall's ode to the 50s, "The Flamingo Kid" (1984), and as Colonel Trautman, Rambo's sympathetic Green Beret mentor in "First Blood" (1982) and its subsequent hyper-macho installments. To his credit, Crenna showed in "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993), in which he spoofs Trautman, that the gritty performance style of his middle years had not obscured his talent for farce.

Crenna has also worked as a TV director. He began doing episodes of "The Real McCoys" during its last two seasons, helmed episodes of "Wendy and Me", "No Time for Sergeants" and "The Andy Griffith Show" later in the decade, and continued into the 70s and 80s with series pilots and installments of various forgettable sitcoms and the drama series, "Lou Grant". A member of the Director's Guild of America, he provided the narration for their commemorative film, "50 Years of Action!" (1986).

• Also Credited As:
  Richard Donald Crenna
• Born:
  November 30, 1926 in Los Angeles, California
• Died:
  January 17, 2003.
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Director, Producer

Family

• Daughter: Maria Crenna. born on September 2, 1965
• Daughter: Seana Crenna. born in 1952
• Son: Richard Crenna Jr. born on June 29, 1959; formerly engaged to actress Salma Hayek

Education

• Belmont High School, Belmont, California
• University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Milestones

• 1952 TV series acting debut, as problem student Walter Denton on "Our Miss Brooks" (he later played in the 1956 film based on the series)
• 1952 Screen acting debut, "Pride of St. Louis"
• 1964 Played the title role in his first feature film in eight years, "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home", co-starring Shirley Maclaine
• 1966 Appeared opposite Steve McQueen in "The Sand Pebbles"
• 1966 Founded Pendick Enterprises
• 1967 Appeared as a burglar terrorizing blind Audrey Hepburn in the thriller "Wait Until Dark"
• 1967 Co-starred in the romantic comedy "Made in Paris"
• 1968 Starred opposite Julie Andrews in the musical biopic "Star!"
• 1969 Starred as part of the team of stranded astronauts in the space adventure "Marooned"
• 1969 Starred in the crime caper comedy "A Run on Gold"
• 1970 Starred in the medical drama "Doctors' Wives" opposite Dyan Cannon, Gene Hackman and Carroll O'Connor
• 1971 Appeared with Yul Brenner and Leonard Nimoy in the Louis L'Amour Western "Catlow"
• 1973 Played the Fred MacMurray role in ABC telepic remake of "Double Indemnity"
• 1973 Provided a voice for the film adapatation of Richard Bach's popular novel "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"
• 1973 Starred in the Western "A Man Called Noon"
• 1975 Appeared with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in the Western "Breakheart Pass"
• 1977 Starred the the supernatural horror film "The Evil"
• 1978 Headlined NBC's meteor disaster thriller "A Fire in the Sky"
• 1979 Appeared in the she-Western "Wild Horse Hank"
• 1979 Appeared in the thriller "Death Ship"
• 1979 Starred in the action film "Stone Cold Dead"
• 1979 TV movie directing debut, "Better Late Than Never"
• 1981 Appeared as Kathleen Turner's doomed husband in writer-director LAwrence Kasdan's "Body Heat"
• 1981 Provided the voice of the title character for the animated children's adventure special, "Daniel Boone"
• 1982 Co-starred opposite Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character as Col. Trautman in "First Blood"
• 1983 Co-starred with Jon Voight in the drama "Table for Five"
• 1984 Had an acclaimed turn as the slick gin rummy country club champ Phil Brody opposite Matt Dillon in "The Flamingo Kid"
• 1985 Appeared with John Candy in the comedy "Summer Rental"
• 1985 Portrayed a sexually assaulted police officer in the ABC telepic "The Rape of Richard Beck"; later earned an Emmy as best actor in a TV movie
• 1985 Reprised Trautman for "Rambo: First Blood Part II"
• 1986 Narrated the feature documentary, "50 Years of Action!", Made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Directors Guild of America
• 1986 Played H. Ross Perot in NBC's mini-series adaptation of Ken Follet's best-seller "On Wings of Eagles," documenting Perot's funding of a mission to rescue two of his employees trapped in Iran in 1979
• 1987 Appeared in ABC's TV adaptation of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite" opposite Carol Burnett
• 1988 Began lucrative side career as a host and narrator for television specials, including "Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition" (1989), "Circus of the Stars" (1990), "The Bermuda Triangle" (1994), A&E's "Las Vegas" (1996), "Cold Case" (1997), "The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special" (2001)
• 1988 Last outing as Trautman for "Rambo III"
• 1989 Appeared in the horror thriller "Leviathan"
• 1989 Starred as Det. Bob Grogan in NBC's detective drama "The Case of the Hillside Strangler"
• 1993 Parodied his "Rambo" role Col. Trautman in "Hot Shots! Part Deux" opposite Charlie Sheen
• 1995 Appeared in director Sydney Pollack's remake of "Sabrina"
• 1995 Appeared in the thriller "Jade"
• 1996 Starred in CBS's telepic "Race Against Time: The Search for Sarah" opposite Patty Duke"
• 1997 Played Professor Aronnax in CBS's TV adaptation of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"
• 1997 Starred in the CBS TV drama "Deep Family Secrets"
• 1997 Starred in the CBS telepic "Heart Full of Rain"
• 1997 Underwent thyroid surgery
• 1998 Played the pursuing federal marshall in "Wrongfully Accused," a "Fugitive" parody starring Leslie Neilsen
• 2000 Had recurring role as Tyne Daly's love interest on the CBS drama "Judging Amy"
• 2001 Cast as Ronald Reagan in the Showtime drama "The Day Reagan Was Shot"
• 2001 Played a gruff cowboy grandfather in Showtime's "By Dawn's Early Light"
• Began career as a guest actor and sometime regular on such radio series as "Boy Scout Jamboree" (at age 10), "A Date With Judy", "Burns and Allen", "The Hardy Family", "The Great Gildersleeve", "Our Miss Brooks"
• Began directing TV with the fifth and sixth seasons of "The Real McCoys"
• Co-starred as Richard Barrington opposite Bernadette Peters on the CBS sitcom, "All's Fair"
• Co-starred opposite James Earl Jones on the short-lived detective comedy spinoff from "Gabriel's Fire", "Pros and Cons"
• Debuted as a producer on the sitcom, "Make Room for Granddaddy", starring Danny Thomas in a reprise of the role he played on "Make Room for Daddy" (1953-57) and "The Danny Thomas Show" (1957-64)
• Directed episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show," "No Time for Sergeants" and "Wendy and Me"
• Directed episodes of the TV sitcoms, "Wendy and Me" (1964-65), "No Time for Sergeants" (1964-65) and "The Andy Griffith Show", as well as the comedy pilot, "Cap'n Ahab" (1965) in the mid-1960s
• Directed such TV pilots as "The Cheerleaders" (1976), "Marie" (1979), "The Hoyt Axton Show" (1981), and "Allison Sidney Harrison" (1983), and episodes of such series as "Grandpa Goes to Washington", "Rosetti and Ryan", "The Rockford Files," "Turnabout" and "Lou Grant"
• Hosted the syndicated news magazine show, "Look at Us"
• Played idealistic state representative James Slattery on the CBS drama series, "Slattery's People"
• Played tough police detective Lt. Frank Janek in a series of TV-movies and miniseries: "Doubletake" (1985), "Internal Affairs" (1988), "Murder in Black and White" (1990), "Murder Times Seven" (1990), "Terror on Track 9" (1992), "The Forget-Me-Not Murders" (1994) and "A Silent Betrayal" (1994)
• Starred as Luke McCoy on the popular sitcom, "The Real McCoys"
• Starred opposite Patty Duke as Dr. Sam Quinn on the ABC sitcom, "It Takes Two"