A Hollywood actor, who has also starred in a number of popular TV series, has died aged 83 and his wife has decided not to share details of his death with the world
A legendary Hollywood actor has died aged 83, his family has confirmed.
Acting icon Randy Boone was most recognised for his role as the singing, guitar-playing ranch hand Randy Benton on the popular NBC series The Virginian, starring alongside James Drury and Doug McClure, riding his own horse.
Boone’s wife Lana confirmed that he passed away on Thursday 28 August 28 but chose not to share any further details about his death with The Hollywood Reporter. Besides his role on The Virginian, Boone also had regular roles on two other successful 60s shows, It’s a Man’s World and Western Cimarron Strip, although both programmes only ran for one series each.
He later secured a part in an episode of The Twilight Zone as a National Guardsman sent back in time to participate in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He joined The Virginian during its second series in February 1964, remaining on the show for two seasons and appearing in 46 episodes before being released at the end of the fourth season in April 1966.
In Paul Green’s 2006 book A History of Television’s The Virginian, Boone discussed his departure from the show: “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 needed as much as anybody.”
“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,” reports the Express.
In his youth, Boone was passionate about playing the guitar: “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 them beat some discipline into me. I couldn’t wait to get out of school and have a good time.”
After spending 18 months travelling, he secured a deal with Universal Studios where he was initially cast as Vern Hodges, a folk-singing university student in a new programme called It’s a Man’s World. He remained under contract when the programme was axed after one series, so along with his horse Clyde he was recruited to join The Virginian’s cast.
Boone revealed he would allow Universal to use his horse at no cost if he could stable him at the studio, and bosses accepted. The actor explained that he wrote many of the tracks he performed on the programme, stating he wanted to “feel like I’m putting something special into the work.”
He signed away the rights to the songs but was amazed and thrilled to receive royalties years later. Randy departed from acting in the late 1980s and began to working in construction.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
