TV's Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brian, has died at 91
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hugh O'Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television's first adult Western, has died.
A representative from HOBY, a philanthropic organization O'Brian founded, says he died at home Monday morning in Beverly Hills.
[...] The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp debuted in September 1955, most TV Westerns — The Lone Ranger, ''Hopalong Cassidy, the singing cowboys' series — were aimed at adolescent boys.
"If we were doing Westerns with the chase and the fights that last endlessly, and the sheriff's daughter in sunbonnet and calico and the Wanted posters ... we wouldn't reach the audience we reach each week," O'Brian once said.
In the 1958-59 season, Westerns accounted for an incredible seven out of the top 10 U.S. television series, including No. 1 "Gunsmoke" and No. 2 "Wagon Train," with "Wyatt Earp" at No. 10.
Late in his career, O'Brian made frequent guest appearances in television series and variety shows and toured in the national companies of Cactus Flower, ''1776 and Guys and Dolls.
[...] after actress Ida Lupino saw him in a play at a small Los Angeles theater she cast him in "Never Fear," a 1949 film she was directing, and his acting career was launched.