“Randy Boone, Who Rode His Own Horse and Portrayed the Singing and Guitar-Playing Ranch Handh Benon on the Long-Running NBC Series The Virginian, Has Died. HE WAS 83. Boone Died Thursday, His Wife, Lana, Told the Hollywood Reporter. She did not want to divulge any of all. The North Carolina Native Also Was a”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Boone Died Thursday, His Wife, Lana, Told The Hollywood Reporter. She did not want to divulge any of all.
The North Carolina Native Also Was A Regular on Two Other 1960s Series, But Each of Those Lasted Just One Season: The 1962-63 NBC Comedy-Drama IT’s A Man’s World and the the 1967-68 CBS Western Cimarron stripStarring Stuart Whitman.
And in the 1963 Twilight Zone Episode “The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms,” Boone Starred As One of the National Guardsmen (Warren Oates and Ron Foster Areers) Who Somehow of Sent Big in Time Tota Part Inte.
A Contract Player at Universal, Boone JoINED The VirginianWHICH Starred James Drury and Doug McClure, Midway Through It Season in February 1964.
“I was told that [producer] Frank [Price] Thought I was Window Dressing and Wasn’t Needed on the Show, But I Feel That I Was Need As Much As Anybody, ”He Said in Paul Green’s 2006 Book, A History of Television’s The Virginian, 1962-1971.
“I THINK A SHOW SUFFERS WHEN YOU MAKE BIG Changes and You Lose The Actors That Caused The People to Fall in Love With It.”
Clyde Randy Boone Was Born Jan. 17, 1942, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He Graduated from Fayetteville Senior High School in 1960 and Spen A Brief Time at North Carolina State College in Raleigh, WHERE HE PLAYED GUITAR AT CLASS.
HE TOLD GREEN THAT HA HAD A PLAN. “I’m going to take my guitar and i’m going to hitchhike around the Country and have some Fun Until the Army Drafts me and then i’ll let theater some discipline. “I COULDNN’T WAIT toing OUT OF SCHOOL AND HAVE A Good Time.”
After Traveling AROUND FOR 18 MONHS, HE Ended Up in Los Angeles in 1962. When Someone He Was Playing Music with Him A TV Producer Was Looking For AULKING Series Called On IT’s A Man’s Worldhe audioned and was hired.
Boone Sigrated A Contract with Universal Studios and Was Cast As Vern Hodges, Who Shares a Houssboat on the Ohio River with Two Friends IT’s A Man’s World.
The Show, Thought Admired by Critics, Was Canceled After Just Four MONHS ON THE AIR AMID TOUGH COMPETITION. Boone and Future That girl Star Bessell Went Across The Country on a Barstorming Campaign to Save It, To No Avail.
Boone was Advised that Knowing How to Ride a Horse would come in Handy in the Age of TV Westerns, SO HE BOUGHT ONE NAMED CLYDE AND BECAME An Expert Rider. That skill – and the fact he was still under Contract – Led Price to Sign Him Up For The Virginian.
Boone Said Hew Let Let Universal Use His Horse for Free If He Could Board Him at the Studio, and Executives Agreed. He Noted that Clyde Wasn’t a Hollywood-Trained Animal, SO “HE ACTED VERY MUCH LIKE A Real Horse, and I Got A Lot of Fan Mail ABOUT How How HE DIDN’T Stand Still.”
Boone was introduced to Viewers of The Virginian on the episode “First to Thine Own Self,” WHICH Premiered In February 1964. His Character, A Drifter, Finds a Home at Shiloh and a friend in Betsy Garth (Roberta Shore). FATHER HAD BEEN MURDERED.
Boone Said that HE WROTE Many of the Songs that HE performed on the show, Saying he wanted to “Feel Like I’M Putting Something Specialty Into The Work.” He Signed Away the Rights to the Songs But Was Surprised and Delighted to Receive Royalties Years Later.
Randy Boone on the Set of ‘The Virginian’ in 1965. Gene Trindl/TV Guide/Courtesy Everett Collection
(He and Shore Were Featured On A 1965 DECCA ALBUM, The Singing Stars of the Virginianand he followed with a solo effort, Ramblin Randy.)
HE PLAYED DEPUTY US MARSHAL/ASPIRING REPORTER FRANCIS WILDE ON Cimarron strip.
Boone Also Showed Up on Episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Wagon Train, Bonanza, The Fugitive, Combat!, Hondo, Emergency!, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Kung fu, Gunsmoke an Highway to Heaven and in Such Films As Country Boy (1966), Terminal Island (1973), Dr. Minx (1975) and The Wild Pair (1987).
HE LEFT ACTING IN THE LATE 1980S AND WORRED IN CONSTRUCTION.