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Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna, portraying Luke McCoy, in the television series, The Real McCoys, in 1961.
Born	Richard Donald Crenna (1926-11-30)November 30, 1926 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	January 17, 2003(2003-01-17) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Southern California[1]
Occupation	Actor, director, producer
Years active	1937–2003
Spouse(s)	Joan Grisham (m. 1950; div. 1955) Hannah Smith (m. 1957; his death 2003)
Children	3
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1944–45
Rank	Corporal[2]
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of the Bulge
Awards	American Campaign Medal European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal[3]

Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor^[4] and occasional television director.^[5]

Richard Crenna starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark,^[5]Un Flic, Body Heat,^[5]the first three Rambo movies,^[4]Hot Shots! Part Deux,^[4] and The Flamingo Kid. Crenna's first success came on radio in 1948 as high school student "Walter Denton" co-starring with Eve Arden and Gale Gordon in the CBS network series Our Miss Brooks. Crenna continued with the long running comedy in its 1952 move into television. He also had a role as "Luke McCoy" in the ABC television, and later CBS, series The Real McCoys (1957–63).

Early life

Crenna was born November 30, 1926, in Los Angeles, the only child of Edith J. (née Pollette), who was a hotel manager in Los Angeles, and Dominick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent.^[6] Crenna attended Virgil Junior High School, followed by Belmont High School in Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1944.^[7]

World War II service

Following high school, Crenna served in the U.S. Army during World War II, serving in the infantry as a radioman, where he saw combat in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge (late 1944 – early 1945). He also briefly served in the Pacific Theater of World War II processing intercepted Japanese radio messages.^[7]

Education

After World War II, Crenna attended the University of Southern California where he majored in English, eventually receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree and was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.^[5][8]

Acting career

Radio years

Crenna got his acting start on radio. In 1937, he had gained his first role that of "the kid who did everything wrong" on Boy Scout Jamboree, a show on which he continued to appear occasionally in numerous roles until 1948. In the following year, he started playing Walter "Bronco" Thompson on The Great Gildersleeve, and played it until the show's end in 1957. He appeared as a delivery boy in My Favorite Husband episode "Liz Cooks Dinner for 12", was Oogie Pringle on A Date With Judy episode "The Competitive Diet" and several other episodes from the show and as a teenager on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show episode "Watching the Neighbor's Daughter".

Early television years

Crenna and Kathleen Nolan in The Real McCoys, 1960

From 1948, Crenna played Walter Denton on radio's Our Miss Brooks remaining with the cast when it moved into television in 1952. He guest starred on the I Love Lucy episode "The Young Fans" with Janet Waldo and on NBC's 1955–56 anthology series, Frontier, in the lead role of the episode entitled "The Ten Days of John Leslie". In 1955, he was the guest star on The Millionaire in the episode "The Ralph McKnight Story".

In 1956, on the television series Father Knows Best, Crenna appeared in the episode "The Promising Young Man" as a protege named Woody. In 1957, he played a bank robber on the Cheyenne show (season 2, episode 19).

In 1956 when the Our Miss Brooks TV series underwent a change in format, the character of Walter Denton was dropped. Crenna then joined the cast of the comedy series The Real McCoys, as Luke McCoy. Kathleen Nolan was cast as his young wife, Kate McCoy. Later, Crenna became one of the four directors of the series during its six-year run (1957–63).

1960s-1970s

Crenna and Bernadette Peters in All's Fair, 1976

In the 1960s, Richard Crenna directed many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show credited as "Dick Crenna". He also directed episodes of Lou Grant, which ran on CBS from 1977-82.^[5]

Crenna portrayed California state senator James Slattery in the CBS-TV series, Slattery's People (1964–65). For his acting in this series, he was twice nominated for an Emmy Award with slightly different names: for "Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment" and for "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series", both in 1965.^[9] Crenna was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best TV Star – Male" for this same role, again in 1965. In 1966, Crenna played beside Steve McQueen as an ill-fated captain of an American gunboat in 1930s China in The Sand Pebbles.

During the 1970s, Crenna continued his acting in such Western dramas such as The Deserter, Catlow, The Man Called Noon and Breakheart Pass. He made a notable performance in Jean-Pierre Melville's final film Un Flic in 1972. In 1976, Crenna returned to weekly network television in the Norman Lear CBS sit-com All's Fair, a political satire co-starring Bernadette Peters that lasted a single season. The 1978 NBC-TV miniseries, Centennial, based on James A. Michener's historical novel Centennial, saw Crenna in the role of deranged religious fanatic, Colonel Frank Skimmerhorn, who ordered the 1864 massacre of Colorado American Indians.

1980s-early 2000s

Crenna in 1998

Crenna won an Emmy Award,^[5] and a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, for his performance as the main character in the 1985 movie The Rape of Richard Beck.^[10]

Crenna played John Rambo's ex-commanding officer Colonel Sam Trautman in the first three Rambo films, a role for which he was hired after the actor Kirk Douglas left the production just one day into the filming of the first movie of the series and which became the veteran character actor's most famous, his performance received much critical praise.^[11] He also spoofed this character in the movie Hot Shots! Part Deux, in 1993. Crenna portrayed the character of New York City Police Lieutenant of Detectives Frank Janek in a series of seven popular made for television films starting in 1988 and ending in 1994. The character of Janek originally appeared in a series of novels by Award-winning author William Bayer.^[12][13]

Honors

Crenna was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard.^[14]

Illnesses and death

Crenna had pancreatic cancer, and died on January 17, 2003 at age 76 of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with his wife, Penni, and his three adult children by his side, said his daughter Seana Crenna. His remains were cremated.^[15]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

See also

• 
  Biography portal
  

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard Crenna.

• 
  Richard Crenna on IMDb


• 
  Richard Crenna at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
  


• 
  Richard Crenna at Find a Grave