Hugh O'Brian, 91, who rose to fame on TV as the quick-drawing Wyatt Earp in the 1950s — but who later devoted extensive time to a foundation he created that trains young people to be leaders — died on Monday at his home in Beverly Hills.
His death was announced by his foundation, HOBY, originally known as Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership.
When he first arrived in Hollywood in 1947, O'Brian was a strapping presence with leading-man looks and a swagger he had picked up in the Marine Corps. He broke into show business by chance, when he escorted an actress to a rehearsal for a play and ended up with a part for himself, filling in for an actor who had fallen ill.
Actress Ida Lupino, then just beginning her career as a director, cast him in her 1949 feature film, "Never Fear."
Early in his career, O'Brian was relegated mostly to secondary status in run-of-the-mill Westerns — with Gene Autry in "Beyond the Purple Hills" (1950), Audie Murphy in "The Cimarron Kid" (1952) and Rock Hudson in "Seminole" (1953). He emerged from obscurity when he landed the title role on "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," which ran on ABC from 1955 to 1961 and was one of the most popular TV Westerns of the era.
O'Brian would play that real-life lawman in one form or another several times during his career, most notably in the 1991 TV movie "The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw," a vehicle for singer Kenny Rogers, and "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone," a 1994 CBS production timed to capitalize on the release that year of the big-budget feature "Wyatt Earp," starring Kevin Costner.
O'Brian remained active through the '60s, '70s and '80s, mostly on TV. He appeared on such series as "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Charlie's Angels," "Fantasy Island" and "Murder, She Wrote."
Although most of O'Brian's movies were Westerns and other action-oriented features, he also acted in comedies, dramas and musicals, including "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954), "Come Fly With Me" (1963) and "Twins" (1988). One of his more memorable roles was in John Wayne's final movie, "The Shootist" (1976). O'Brian played a professional gambler who, in the film's closing moments, became the last character ever killed on-screen by Wayne.