ROBERT CONRAD Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ROBERT CONRAD

Name: Robert Conrad                                                                 
Birth name: Conrad Robert Falk                                                       
                                                                                     
Robert Conrad is an American film and TV actor and director. He is primarily         
known for the 1965-1969 CBS television series The Wild Wild West, in which he       
played the sophisticated Secret Service agent James West.                           
                                                                                     
Conrad was born as Conrad Robert Falk in Chicago, Illinois. During his early         
career one of Conrad's best friends was actor Nick Adams, who by many accounts       
helped him get work in Hollywood.                                                   
                                                                                     
Before The Wild Wild West, Conrad played Tom Lopaka in ABC's Hawaiian Eye           
opposite Anthony Eisley and Connie Stevens. In the mid-1970s he played World War     
II fighter ace Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep on NBC. His half-brother,     
Larry Manetti, also appeared in this series, as well as the CBS                     
series Magnum, P.I.. In the late 1970s, Conrad served as the captain of the NBC     
team for six editions of Battle of the Network Stars. He also played a modern       
day variation of James West in the short-lived secret agent series A Man Called     
Sloane in 1979, about the same time he reprised the role of West in a pair of       
made-for-TV films. He also starred in the 1978 TV miniseries Centennial on NBC.     
                                                                                     
Conrad was widely identified in the late 1970s for his television commercials       
for Eveready batteries, particularly his challenge to the viewer to "knock the       
battery off my shoulder". The commercial was frequently parodied on Johnny           
Carson's The Tonight Show and The Carol Burnett Show. In 1988, Conrad starred in     
a short lived TV series called High Mountain Rangers with two of his sons. He       
also starred in that show's one season spin-off Jesse Hawkes. In 1992, Conrad       
played the role of the sheriff in Richard Marx's Hazard video.                       
                                                                                     
Conrad took over hosting The History Channel's Weapons At War (later Tech Force)     
in 2000 following George C. Scott's 1999 death. In 2006, Conrad recorded special     
audio introductions for every episode of the first season of The Wild Wild West     
for its North American DVD release on June 6. The DVD set also included one of       
Conrad's Eveready battery commercials; in his introduction, Conrad stated that       
he was flattered to be parodied by Carson.                                           
                                                                                     
He was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame for his work on The Wild, Wild     
West series.