The Life and Legend of Hugh O’Brian
An outrageous interview with the actor who is almost as legendary as the man he portrayed.
By: Henry Cabot Beck 06/01/2009
He admits he got the obligatory lucky breaks: sick actors who required replacing, a fantastic audition for Director Ida Lupino that netted him an important role and a succession of small-getting-bigger parts in pictures in the late 1940s-50s.
O’Brian can be a moderately tough interview, not so much because of his age, but because his hearing was compromised as a result of the loud gunfire on the series. “I insisted on using full loads, instead of quarter loads, [which were] just enough to get a bang and some smoke out the end of the pistol. But I wanted the guy in front of me to really feel the pressure of a live .45, and whether they were getting paid or not, they fell down.”
O’Brian is alternately righteous and raunchy, tough and entertaining, how I like to imagine the real Wyatt Earp might have been, back in the 1920s, over a poker game or on a cool Los Angeles evening. Although O’Brian interrupted our initial conversation so that he could attend a screening of Wolverine at the Playboy Mansion, he gave me enough material for several interviews, and I have no doubt he has plenty more to give.
Hugh O’Brian: You know what the title of my book’s gonna be? The Older I Get, The Better I Was [laughs].
Henry Cabot Beck: I wanted to tell you how much I’ve been enjoying watching the first season of Wyatt Earp. They’re damn good shows.
Well thank you. We had very little time to make them, and you really had to know what the f--- you were doing, because very rarely would we have time for a second take. And the other thing was the always-continuing battle for authenticity, and that had to do with the scripts and what the other people did. My own dialogue was one thing, but also getting [it] to try to be authentic with the other guy’s dialogue.
But I think I wound up with a lot of respect. Do you realize how much dialogue is in 18 pages a day? And when we began, it was a six-day week in show business. You did a film, TV, six days a week. Monday through Saturday. And with [Ronald] Reagan running the union, we [went on strike], and we got a five-day week. And the Wyatt Earp people said, “Okay you a--holes, you don’t want to work on Saturday? We’re going to do two shows in five days instead of six.” And so we would do Monday and Tuesday on show one, on Wednesday we’d go out to Autry [Santa Clarita] or wherever, and we’d shoot the exteriors for both shows, and on Thursday and Friday we’d shoot the interiors for the second show. Think about that, and not getting home until 7:30 at night, having to memorize 18 pages for the next day, and then getting up at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m., they’d pick you up at 6:00, and by 6:15, you’re out on the god---- set at RKO.
I never, ever had a dressing room, so you know what happened? Lucy was married to Desi, and they owned the RKO Studio. Lucy heard they didn’t want to spend the money to rent me a dressing room. She said, “You use my dressing room. Go embarrass those a--holes to where they pay for your own dressing room.” For six years I used her dressing room.
You know, the only way I made any money on Earp was I bought the company that supplied all the hardware, and eventually the wardrobe company, and by owning all of that, I made money on the show.
Comments (5)
Adam,
Hugh O'Brian is extremely accessible to his fans, and he is known to personally autograph every item. If you have a photograph of Wyatt Earp that you would like Hugh O'Brian to sign, I believe he charges $20.00 for that. You can contact him, and find out more information about his merchandise, on his website: http://hughobrian.me
Cheers,
Meghan Saar
Managing Editor
True West Magazine
Would Hugh O'Brian ever sign Wyatt Earp's name on a photo or take a photo having Earp's signature next to it?
Hey: Great interview. Brings back memories of the days I watched it on the t.v I was always trying to make my own version of the Buntline out of wood scrapes
Great to see such an icon interviewed. When is the Earp series going to be properly released so we can see it again?
Hey good interview & honest responses
by Hough. Enjoyed it immensely!
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