Actor From Classic NBC Show Dead at 83: Wife Confirms Passing of Randy Boone

Actor Randy Boone has died,

The Virginian star, who was 83, passed on Thursday, his wife, Lana, told The Hollywood Reporter, but didn’t specify any details.

Clyde Randy Boone was born on Jan. 17, 1942 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. After graduating from high school in 1960, he briefly studied at North Carolina State College, where he played guitar at house parties and barely attended classes. He told Paul Green in his 2006 book, A History of Television’s The Virginian, 1962-1971, that he had a plan to take his guitar and “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.”

While he didn’t get drafted, Boone did wind up in Los Angeles in 1962 after traveling the country for 18 months. Someone he was playing music with told him a TV producer was looking for a “young man to play a folk-singing college student” on a new series called It’s a Man’s World. He auditioned and soon signed a contract with Universal Studios. Boone was then cast as Vern Hodges on the NBC sitcom, which ran for only one season, from 1962 to 1963.

Although Boone and co-star Ted Bessell tried to save the series with a campaign across the country, they were unsuccessful. Ultimately, Boone decided to learn how to ride a horse after he was advised it would come in handy for TV Westerns, and it did. Producer Frank Price booked him for The Virginian. Boone portrayed young hand ranch Randy Benton for Seasons 2-4 from 1963-1966.

Starring an ensemble cast that also includes Morton Fine, David Friedkin, Burt Kennedy, Harold Swanton, Winston Miller, Richard Jessup, and Frank Chase, among others, The Virginian ran for nine seasons, from 1962 to 1971. Loosely based on the 1902 Western novel The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister, the series is network television’s third-longest-running Western series, behind Bonanza at 14 seasons and Gunsmoke at 20 seasons.

After The Virginian, Randy Boone went on to appear in shows such as Combat!, Bonanza, Cimarron Strip, Emergency!, Kung Fu, Gunsmoke, and Highway to Heaven, while film credits include Terminal Island, Dr. Minx, and The Wild Pair, the latter of which was his final on-screen role in 1987. After leaving the acting world, Boone settled on working in construction.