Richard Crenna had one of the longest..and most consistent -careers in show business history. He was a Hotel owners son, who said he learned how to act by mimicing the various and sundry guests of the hotel. He started in radio in the forties and broke into TV as Walter Denton in that wonderful show, Our Miss Brooks. By the late fifies, he was hitting it big as Luke McCoy in The Real McCoys.,and by 1963 he was directing episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, including the classic Opie the Birdman. Up to 1964, he had specialized in comedy when James (Ben Casey) Moser had the idea of casting him in a serious drama about A crusading state legislator. The result was Slattery's People, which earned him two Emmy nominations as well as aGolden globe. Unfortunately, it was killed in the ratings by The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and is now only remembered by a tiny group of enthusiasts. Slattery's people had one salutary result for Crenna. It established him as a gifted dramatic actor. In the years follwing Slattery's people, he starred in a truly astonishing assortment of Made for TV Movies, Sitcoms, Movies and feature films. While he never made it to the superstar ranks, he was admired as an actor of dedication and craft. Even thoughHe is probably now best remembered as Colonel Trautman in the Rambo films, his finest work was on Tv, most notably in Slattery's People, almost every episode of which is locked up in the CBS vaults. God knows why.
