Richard Long

 Richard Long (December 17, 1927 – December 21, 1974)

Long was an actor best known for his leading roles in three ABC television series, including The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor, and Bourbon Street Beat. He was also a series regular on ABC's 77 Sunset Strip from 1960 to 1962. At Hollywood High School, Long caught the eye of a talent scout from Universal-International by accident. Casting director Jack Murton gave a ride to a couple of students and asked them if a school play was scheduled. The boys told Murton about the excellent male lead actor, Richard Long. In 1946, Long was cast in his first film, Tomorrow Is Forever as Drew, the son of the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles. He moved into leading man status in horror movies such as Cult of the Cobra (1954) and House on Haunted Hill (1959). In 1963, Long was cast in the MGM romantic musical Follow the Boys, along with co-stars Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, and Roger Perry. He appeared on episodes of Hey, Jeannie!, The Twilight Zone, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Tenderfoot (1964) for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. He played the recurring villainous role of gambler/con artist "Gentleman Jack Darby" in four episodes of the ABC/WB western series, Maverick beginning in 1958. In 1965, at the age of thirty-eight, Long began his role as attorney Jarrod Barkley, the oldest son to rancher Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck), in 112 episodes of The Big Valley. In 1970–71, he and Juliet Mills starred in the ABC sitcom Nanny and the Professor. Long was twice married: his first wife, singer and actress Suzan Ball, who he had married fourteen months earlier, died of cancer in 1955, at age 21. They had met in 1953, after her cancer diagnosis; her right leg was amputated in early 1954 and they wed in April. In 1957, he married actress/model Mara Corday in Las Vegas.

Long had cardiac problems throughout his adult life, and had suffered a heart attack in the late 1950s. As a boy, he had suffered pneumonia, which apparently weakened his heart. He was also a heavy smoker and drinker. After suffering several heart attacks, he was hospitalized for his last month and died on December 21, 1974 at age 47.