Richard Chamberlain Dies: ‘Dr. Kildare’ & ‘The Thorn Birds’ Star Was 90

Richard Chamberlain, a stage and screen actor with a TV résumé more than a half-century long, has died. He was 90 years old.

Chamberlain died on Saturday, March 29, in Waimanalo, Hawaii, of complications following a stroke, his publicist told Variety.

“Our beloved Richard is with the angels now,” Martin Rabbett, Chamberlain’s longtime partner and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold costar, said in a statement. “He is free and soaring to those loved ones before us. How blessed were we to have known such an amazing and loving soul. Love never dies. And our love is under his wings, lifting him to his next great adventure.”

Chamberlain is best known for small-screen work as the star of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare in the 1960s and the 1980 NBC miniseries Shōgun and the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds. The latter two performances both earned him Golden Globe trophies and Emmy nominations.

Dr. Kildare brought the titular intern from magazine stories, novels, and feature films to television, with Chamberlain holding the stethoscope. Playing the doc made Chamberlain a screen idol who reportedly received 12,000 fan letters a week, according to The New York Times.

In Shōgun , the first TV adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name, Chamberlain played Pilot-Major John Blackthorne a.k.a.

Anjin-san, an Englishman navigating political intrigue in feudal Japan.

And in The Thorn Birds, adapted from Colleen McCullough’s 1977 novel of the same name, the actor portrayed Ralph de Bricassart, a Catholic priest in a forbidden romance with the niece of a ranching family in Australia.

For Chamberlain, taking on a miniseries was like performing Shakespeare — which he did to rave reviews when he starred in Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theater in 1969.

“It’s a very special knack to keep the ideas clear through a whole soliloquy with qualifying asides and pick up the line again,” he told Times in 1988. “A 10-hour miniseries is similar. You must keep the overall design in your mind while shooting totally out of sequence.”

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Richard Chamberlain Looks Back on His Celebrated TV Career, Including Working With Barbara Stanwyck in 'The Thorn Birds'

Chamberlain continued acting in his 70s and 80s, guest-starring in Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Brothers & Sisters, and Leverage. He made his final TV appearance in 2017, appearing in the Twin Peaks reboot.

In a Q&A with TV Insider last year, Chamberlain said he was spending his retirement in Hawaii with “wonderful friends and wonderful travels.”

Reflecting on his legacy, he said, “If people want to remember some of the things I’ve done, that would be nice. But the big stuff was some time ago. I’d just like to be remembered as a reasonably nice guy with a sense of humor.”