Robert Conrad

Actor

Name at birth: Conrad Robert Falk

Actor Robert Conrad specialized in playing resourceful tough guys throughout his 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.

Extra credit: 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."

Other actors who played groovy secret agents in the 1960s included Sean Connery (Bond), Dean Martin (Matt Helm), Roger Moore (The Saint) and David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.).