Facts about Robert Conrad
Robert Conrad Biography
Actor Robert Conrad specialized in playing resourceful tough guys throughout his long TV career.
He starred in two especially popular TV series, playing special agent James T. West in The Wild Wild West (1965-70) and flying ace ‘Pappy’ Boyington in the World War II series Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976-77). The Wild Wild West stayed in reruns for years, with Conrad as a 19th-century James Bond-style secret agent serving at the pleasure of President U.S. Grant. (The series was remade into a 1999 movie starring Will Smith as West.)
Robert Conrad’s films include Thundering Jets (1958), Murph the Surf (1975, also known as Live a Little, Steal a Lot) and the 1982 TV movie Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (with, Conrad as G. Gordon Liddy). But he is best remembered for his TV hits.
A 2003 car crash left Conrad with nerve damage and partly paralyzed; police said Conrad was driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.22, three times the legal limit. He pled no contest and in 2004 was sentenced to six months of house arrest and five years of probation.
Extra credit
Robert Conrad was a spokesman for Eveready Batteries during the late 1970s. He appeared in a series of ads with a battery perched on his shoulder, challenging viewers to knock it off with the tag line, “Go ahead, I dare ya”… Robert Conrad was married twice: to Joan Kenlay from 1952 until their divorce in 1977, and to LaVelda Fann from 1983 until their divorce in 2010. He had five children with Joan Kenlay and three with LaVelda Fann; his New York Times obituary said that he had 18 grandchildren at the time of his death… The same NY Times obituary quoted Conrad as once saying, “I’m only about 5-feet-8 and only weigh 165 pounds”… Robert Conrad began hosting a weekly digital radio show, PM Show With Robert Conrad, in 2007.