My Film Biography

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ROBERT URICH

Biography 

For the past twenty-five years, Robert Urich has been one of the most popular and prolific actors on television.  His “TVQ”, an index of recognition and likeability, is not surprisingly one of the highest in television, ranking in the top five.  Urich has starred in over fifteen weekly television series’ including the popular and long-running series’ Spenser: For Hire and Vega$, which consistently earned top 20 ratings.  He has also starred in the series’ S.W.A.T., Gavilan, Soap, Tabitha, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, American Dreamer, Crossroads, Lonesome Dove, It Had to be You, The Lazarus Man, Vital Signs, PBS’s Boatworks, UPN’s The Love Boat: The Next Wave and the WB’s animated drama Invasion America, and the current EMERIL on NBC. 

Upon concluding National Geographic’s On Assignment series, Urich received the 1992 Cable Ace Award for Informational Host of National Geographic’s Explorer, which he hosted for three years.  He also received a 1992 Emmy Award for his narration of the Explorer film U-Boats: Terror on Our Shores.

In addition to his success in weekly television series’, Urich has also worked extensively in movies for television, having received both critical and popular acclaim for The Defiant Ones, Young Again, The Comeback, Lady Be Good, Stranger At My Door, And Then She Was Gone, Survive the Savage Sea, Final Descent, and Miracle on the 17^th Green, in which he was executive producer. Urich most recently completed two movies for CBS Television, For the Love of Olivia with Lou Gossett Jr. and Aftermath with Meredith Baxter.

Urich has also starred in numerous mini-series’ including Princess Daisy, Mistral’s Daughter, the CBS dramatic telefilm To Save the Children, the highly-rated Danielle Steele’s Perfect Stranger, two Spenser: For Hire movies for Lifetime and ABC, Tailhook, the Hallmark Hall of Fame feature Captain Courageous, The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue for the Family Channel, CBS’s Family Descent, and Final Run.

Among Urich’s feature film credits are starring roles in Turk 182! With Timothy Hutton, Endangered Species with JoBeth Williams, Ice Pirates with Anjelica Huston, Jock of the Bushveld, and most recently, Cloverbend.

Urich has also performed on stage in productions that include The Hasty Heart in which he teamed with his wife, Heather Menzies, at the Kennedy Center for the Arts.  He also completed a starring role as Billy Flynn in the touring company of Chicago, ending his successful run on Broadway. 

A small town high school football hero of Toronto, Ohio, Urich earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio and Television Communications at Florida Sate University while on a four-year football scholarship.  While still a student, Urich hosted his own weekly television talk show.  He subsequently earned an MA in Broadcast Research and Management from Michigan State University. 

Urich made his stage debut by talking his way into a community theater production of Lovers and Other Strangers. He spent the next 18 months performing at Chicago’s Ivanhoe Theater and the Arlington Park and Pheasant Run Theaters, during which time he caught the attention of a talent agent and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career. 

He landed his first series starring role in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice based on the controversial movie of the same title.  Shortly thereafter, he made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood’s second outing as Dirty Harry Callahan, Magnum Force – five lines before being crushed under a motorcycle by Eastwood’s speeding car!  Urich began to work steadily after Magnum Force with the police series S.W.A.T. and then his own starring roles in Vega$ and Gavilan.  He has worked consistently ever since.

In 1996, following the final production of the first season of The Lazarus Man, Robert was diagnosed with Synovial Cell Sarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer.  He underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for eight months.  During treatment, he spoke very publicly about his cancer.

Robert has been awarded many honors including the Gilda Radner Courage Award from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.  Urich continues to do a speaking tour throughout the United States, and he has publicly spoken more than 45 times to over 200,000 people across the country.  The audiences range from Cancer Support Groups to Fortune 500 Companies.  He has been featured on Primetime Live interviewed by Dianne Sawyer, and has appeared Extra, Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America and Larry King Live.  He had been a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Conan O’Brien Show, Live with Regis, and The View.

He is survived by his wife, Heather, and three children, Ryan, Emily, and Allison.

For an in-depth listing of appearances in film and
television, please click here. 

Some Career Highlights

1973 TV debut in sitcom "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"
             
1973 "Magnum Force"
             
1975-76 Co-starred in series "S.W.A.T."

1977 Played Peter Campbell in the sitcom "Soap"

1977-78 Co-starred in sitcom "Tabitha"

1978-81 Starred in the series "Vega$"

1982 Starred in series "Gavilan"

1985-88 Starred in "Spenser For Hire"

1989 Role of Jake Spoon in "Lonesome Dove"

1990-91 Role as Tom Nash in the sitcom "American Dreamer"

1991-94 Host for "National Geographic Explorer"

1992-93 Role in hour long series "Crossroads"

1993 Co-starred in sitcom "It Had to Be You"

1995 Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
             
1995-96 Star of "The Lazarus Man"

1999 Produced / Starred "Miracle On The Seventeenth Green"

1999 - 00 Role of Razzle Dazzle 'Em Billy Flynn in the play "Chicago"

2001 - Co-Star "Emeril"

Special thanks to
Cathleen A'Hearn, Jenny Dietz, and Sandi Clemens for the database.