In the early 1960s, more than 12,000 fan letters a week reportedly arrived at MGM for the young actor who played Dr Kildare. Richard Chamberlain went on to become the biggest star of the television miniseries in the 1980s, and in his late sixties he wrote openly about the fact that he was gay. He died on March 29, 2025, in Waimānalo, Hawaii, from complications after a stroke. He was 90, two days short of his 91st birthday.
Dr Kildare
Chamberlain was born in Beverly Hills on March 31, 1934. After serving in the army in Korea, he began acting, and in 1961 NBC cast him as James Kildare, an idealistic young intern, in Dr. Kildare. The series ran until 1966 and made him one of the most famous faces in America. He also had a hit single with the show’s theme, sung as “Three Stars Will Shine Tonight”.
Hamlet and the miniseries
To escape his heart-throb image, Chamberlain moved to Britain and played Hamlet on stage in Birmingham in 1969, earning strong reviews. He returned to television and became the defining star of the miniseries era: he played the frontiersman in Centennial, the English navigator John Blackthorne in Shōgun in 1980 and the priest Father Ralph de Bricassart in The Thorn Birds in 1983, which drew one of the largest audiences of any miniseries in American history. Both Shōgun and The Thorn Birds won him Golden Globes.
Coming out
For decades Chamberlain kept his sexuality private, believing that coming out would end his career. In 2003, in his memoir Shattered Love, he wrote publicly that he was gay. He spent much of his later life in Hawaii with his long-time partner, Martin Rabbett, who announced his death.
Chamberlain spent his first decades on screen keeping his private life hidden and his last two decades living openly, with Martin Rabbett, his partner of many years.