Hugh O'Brian

If you were around in the 70s you’ll remember the television series “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.” Hugh O’Brian starred in this show along with numerous TV appearances and movies, including “The Shootist” with John Wayne. This was Wayne’s final movie. O’Brian played the last actor whom John Wayne ever killed on the screen. Hugh was born Hugh Krampe but decided he didn’t want to use that name in life, so he took his mother’s maiden name O’Brien. They misspelled it with an a, so he kept it that way. He was married only once and that was to his girlfriend of 18 years. Hugh was 81 at the time. He created the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation, a nonprofit youth leadership program for high school scholars, which has sponsored more than a half million students. The reason for this brief podcast is: The state of Wisconsin’s involvement in the program to this day. He had an interesting answer to the question of how long the Wyatt Earp show was on TV.