TV legend Morning Man Classic: Richard Chamberlain who has died a day before his 91st birthday

Hard to believe but Richard Chamberlain, the great star of The Thorn Birds, Shogun and Dr. Kildare,, died on Saturday night in Waimanalo, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. He was 90.

A spokesman, Harlan Boll, said the cause was complications of a stroke.

He was pretty much off my radar until I saw a scene in Thorn Birds where he was dancing (it was the same party where Barbara Stanwyck kissed him on the lips then died) and he was just so HOT!

From then on, I watched everything he ever did.

He came out as a gay man in 2003 and wrote about it in his memoir Shattered Love: “When I grew up, being gay, being a sissy or anything like that was verboten. I disliked myself intensely and feared this part of myself intensely and had to hide it and became “Perfect Richard, All-American Boy” as a place to hide.”

“The sort of double life I was leading seemed, after a while, part of the game,” he said on the “Today” show while publicizing his book. “You know, the performer’s — your public image is part of the show, really.”

He continued to be busy in roles both straight and gay – including in recent years playing Felicity Huffman’s gay stepfather on Desperate Housewives and Uncle Saul’s love interest on Brothers & Sisters. He also appeared on the crime series Leverage. In May 2017, he made the briefest of cameo appearances in a celebrity-studded episode of Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return, as the elegant gray-haired assistant to the transgender F.B.I. chief of staff.

Later films include Forbidden Love, The Perfect Family and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. His final film role was as an acting coach in the mystery Finding Julia in 2019.