Remembering 2025’s Losses: Richard Chamberlain

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This is how you tell my age. I hate to break the news to you, but this month, on my list, you will not see a tribute to Val Kilmer, who passed away last year. That’s no knock on him or his talent, but I just can’t articulate about him because I never saw a movie he was in. Meanwhile, this hunk had my undivided attention! Richard Chamberlain This won’t be the last time I say it this month: here’s this heartthrob, the dream of so many girls (myself included), and it turns out he was gay. I grew up with Dr. Kildare reruns in the 60s, so to me, Chamberlain was the gorgeous doctor. (Never understood as a kid why my doctor didn’t look like him. ) Then my niece’s generation knew him in a different light: the “king of the miniseries.” He was in Shogun, The Thorn Birds, and even The Bourne Identity. I remember his wonderful dual role in the TV version of The Man in the Iron Mask, too. Unknown to me at my early age, Chamberlain also had a career as a singer. He had a top ten hit with the theme from Dr. Kildare (“Three Stars Will Shine Tonight”) and recorded other “easy listening” albums. Chamberlain was a major star on the small screen for decades. His passing in March 2025 (two days before his 91st birthday) leaves a hole in the history of the “good ol’ days” of television. Richard Chamberlain Born George Richard Chamberlain, March 31, 1934, Los Angeles, California Died March 29, 2025, Waimanalo, Hawaii (complications of a stroke) (age 90) HALL OF FAME: Online Film and Television Association Television Actors Chamberlain singing “Three Stars Will Shine Tonight,” the theme from his TV series Dr. Kildare: