Richard Long (1927-1974)

biography

Born in Chicago on December 17, 1927, handsome actor Richard Long was spotted by a talent agent for films while he was a senior at Hollywood High School. As a result, he nabbed two important film roles fresh out of high school. His first roles came in a pair of RKO film noir thrillers directed by Orson Welles: Tomorrow Is Forever (1946; with Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles) and The Stranger (1946; with Edward G. Robinson and Orson Welles). Long's strong performances did not go unnoticed; Universal-International signed the youth in late 1946. The studio quickly cast him as the eldest son of Ma and Pa Kettle in the comedy The Egg and I (1947; with Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, and Marjorie Main). Long acted in four of the nine films in the Ma and Pa Kettle series, later moving on to more adult roles. A two-year stint in the Army ended in 1953, after which he resumed his film career. In 1954, he married actress Suzan Ball, who was very ill at the time of their marriage; Ball died the following year from cancer. In 1957, he married another beautiful actress, scream queen Mara Corday. Corday filed for a divorce on at least two separate occasions early on in their marriage, but the couple reconciled after Long suffered a heart attack in 1961. Although their relationship was a tumultuous one, they remained married for the rest of his life.

Universal and Long parted ways in 1955, and his film career began to sputter. From the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s, Long acted in just six more films, including William Castle's House on Haunted Hill (1959; with Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart), Follow the Boys (1963; with Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss), and Make Like a Thief (1964), which was his last theatrically released film. Although his film career had gone south, Long made a name for himself in television beginning in the late 1950s, starring in the series Maverick, Bourbon Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip, The Big Valley, and Nanny and the Professor.

the films of richard long

Tomorrow is Forever (1946)

The Stranger (1946)

The Life of Riley (1949)

Ma and Pa Kettle (1949)

Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951)

Air Cadet (1951)

All American (1953)

Cult of the Cobra (1955)

Fury at Gunsight Pass (1956)

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Follow the Boys (1963)

The Big Valley (1965-1969 ABC TV Series)

Nanny and the Professor (1970-1971 ABC TV Series)

later years

Television series and made-for-television films kept Richard Long very busy throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. A heavy smoker and troubled with heart problems for years, Long died at the age of 47 on December 21, 1974. He was survived by his wife, Mara Corday, and their two sons and daughter. Long's sister was married to actor Marshall Thompson.

richard long films available from movies unlimited

TELEVISION
The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition: Season 3 [DVD](1961) DVD
All 37 episodes from the third season--including "Two," "It's a Good Life," "Deaths-Head Revisited," "Kick the Can," "To Serve Man," and "I Sing the Body Electric"--are featured in a five-disc set. 16 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; audio commentary on selected episodes; interviews; promos; DVD-ROM content; more. **37 episodes on 5 discs. 16 hrs.**
The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition: Season 5 [DVD](1963) DVD
All 36 episodes from the fifth and final season--including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "A Kind of Stopwatch," "The Long Morrow," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," and "The Bewitchin' Pool"--are featured in a six-disc set. 18 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; audio commentary on selected episodes; interviews; featurettes; documentary "Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval"; more. **36 episodes on 6 discs. 18 hrs.**
The Twilight Zone: Season 5 [Blu-ray](1963)
All 36 episodes from the fifth and final season--including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," "A Kind of a Stopwatch," "The Long Morrow," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," and "The Bewitchin' Pool"--are featured in a five-disc set. 15 1/3 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Uncompressed PCM mono; Subtitles: English (SDH); audio commentary on selected episodes; interviews; radio shows; bonus footage; isolated music score; promos; more. **36 episodes on 5 discs. 15 1/2 hrs.**
The Big Valley: Season One [DVD](1965) DVD
All 30 first-season episodes--including "Palms of Glory," "Forty Rifles," "Night of the Wolf," "The Invaders," "Under a Dark Star," and "Last Train to the Fair"--have been collected in a five-disc set. 25 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish.
The Big Valley: Season Two, Vol. 1 [DVD](1966) DVD
The first 15 second-season episodes--including "Lost Treasure," the two-part "Legend of a General," "Target," "The Great Safe Robbery," and "Day of the Comet"--have been collected in a three-disc set. 12 3/4 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English.
Love American Style: Season One, Vol. 2 [DVD](1970) DVD
The remaining 12 episodes from the debut season--including "Love and the Medium/Love and the Bed/Love and the High School Flop-Out," "Love and the Fighting Couple/Love and the Pick-Up/Love and the Proposal," "Love and the Nervous Executive/Love and the Great Catch/Love and the Hitchhiker," "Love and Las Vegas/Love and the Good Samaritan/Love and the Marriage Counselor," and "Love and the Singles Apartment/Love and the Minister"--are available in a three-disc set. 10 1/3 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono. **12 episodes on 3 discs. 10 1/3 hrs.**

FILM
Tomorrow Is Forever [DVD](1946) DVD
Scarred and disabled in battle in World War I, American soldier Orson Welles goes into hiding in Austria while wife Claudette Colbert, assuming her husband is dead, remarries factory owner George Brent. Eventually, Welles is hired by Brent and returns to America to find his wife and the son he never knew. Moving melodrama also stars Richard Long and Natalie Wood (in her first credited screen role). 104 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.
The Stranger [DVD](1946) DVD
Suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller features director/star Orson Welles as an escaped Nazi war criminal living as a teacher in a small Connecticut college town, with Edward G. Robinson as a federal agent tracking him down. The final chase scene in an old clock tower is a classic; with Loretta Young. 94 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English mono; scene access. Plays All Regions.
The Claudette Colbert Collection [DVD] DVD
Claudette Colbert stars as a beautiful young woman who becomes the object of affection for the charming doctor (Richard Arlen) who rents a room in her financially troubled family's home, in "Three-Cornered Moon" (1933). Colbert and Fred MacMurray are free-spirited young lovers who oppose the infamous 17th-century Massachusetts witch hunts, in "Maid of Salem" (1937). An American fashion designer (Colbert) is romanced by a writer (Melvyn Douglas), a playboy (Robert Young), and her hometown boyfriend (Lee Bowman), in "I Met Him in Paris" (1937). "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" (1938) is an Ernst Lubitsch comedy with Gary Cooper as a millionaire who's gone through seven marriages and looks to make French shopgirl Colbert his next bride. A sophisticated and refined reporter (Colbert) has "No Time for Love" (1943) but reluctantly falls for a salt-of-the-earth laborer (MacMurray) anyway. And, city-bred Claudette gets more than she bargained for when she weds chicken farmer Fred and moves to the country, in "The Egg and I" (1947), with Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. 8 3/4 hrs. total on three discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English (SDH), French, Spanish; featurette; theatrical trailer.
Criss Cross [DVD](1949) DVD
Memorable "noir" thriller stars Burt Lancaster as an armored car driver whose affair with ex-wife Yvonne De Carlo forces him to help her husband, gangster Dan Duryea, in a heist. Slickly staged by director Robert Siodmak, the film also features Tony Curtis in his film debut, playing a gigolo. 98 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: French, Spanish; theatrical trailer.
Classic Western Round-Up, Vol. 1 [DVD] DVD
One-time desperadoes Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie go straight and join "The Texas Rangers" (1936) in their fight to uphold the law in Lone Star territory. When one of their former partners continues his outlaw ways, MacMurray and Oakie are called on to catch him. Lloyd Nolan, Jean Peter co-star. Next, the Oregon Territory of the 1850s is the setting for a bitter rivalry between scout-turned-general store owner Dana Andrews and crooked banker Brian Donlevy--a rivalry that intensifies when beautiful Susan Hayward comes between them--in "Canyon Passage" (1946). Audie Murphy stars as a young Jesse James, who becomes the protege of notorious outlaw William Quantrill (Donlevy) before making history as leader of his own gang, in "Kansas Raiders" 1950). With Marguerite Chapman, Tony Curtis, Richard Long. And, in his fir st starring role, Rock Hudson plays famed frontier badman John Wesley Hardin in director Raoul Walsh's well-crafted Western biodrama "The Lawless Breed" (1953). Julia Adams, John McIntyre and Lee Van Cleef also star. 6 hrs. total on two discs. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English (SDH), French; theatrical trailers.
The Barbara Stanwyck Collection [DVD] DVD
The first film to feature Dr. Kildare, "Internes Can't Take Money" (1937) finds ex-convict Barbara Stanwyck seeking help from the caring medico (Joel McCrea) to save her kidnapped daughter from a gangster. With Lloyd Nolan. An elderly Stanwyck looks back on her romance with frontiersman and eventual U.S. senator McCrea in the sweeping drama "The Great Man's Lady" (1942), co-starring Brian Donlevy. Horse breeder Stanwyck's marriage to author/Civil War buff Robert Cummings is endangered thanks to neighbor Diana Lynn in the comedy "The Bride Wore Boots" (1946). With Robert Benchley, Natalie Wood. "The Lady Gambles" (1949) has Stanwyck being bitten by the gaming bug while visiting Las Vegas with reporter spouse Robert Preston. With Stephen McNally and, as a bellhop, Tony Curtis. After leaving for an affair and a stage career, early 1900s actress Stanwyck tries to reunite with husband Richard Carlson and their children in the Douglas Sirk melodrama "All I Desire" (1953). And toy manufacturer Fred MacMurray sees an escape from a stifling homelife when old flame Stanwyck returns in Sirk's "There's Always Tomorrow" (1956), with Joan Bennett. 8 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono. Three-disc set.
The Adventures Of Ma And Pa Kettle, Vol. 1 [DVD] DVD
First, the hillbilly husband and wife played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride are introduced in the all-time favorite barnyard comedy "The Egg and I" (1947), with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. Then, the Kettle clan is about to be run out of their home until Pa wins "the home of the future" in a slogan-writing contest in "Ma and Pa Kettle" (1949). AKA: "The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle." The Kettles find themselves in New York where they unwittingly help a crook on the lam in "Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town" (1950). Finally, Ma and Pa head back to the homestead when they think there's uranium on the premises in "Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm" (1951). 5 3/4 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: French, Spanish.
The Adventures Of Ma And Pa Kettle, Vol. 2 [DVD] DVD
Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride lead the hilarious backwoods brood to the county fair with hopes of winning some tuition money for their college-bound daughter in "Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair" (1952). Jim Backus co-stars. Next, the Kettles wind up in the middle of an espionage plot involving secret plans during a trip to Paris in "Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation" (1953). Then, Ma and Pa try to help Elwin, one of their 15 kids, win a scholarship to an agricultural college in "Ma and Pa Kettle at Home" (1954). And, when their cousin becomes ill in Hawaii, Ma and Pa head to the islands to help out in her pineapple factory in "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki" (1955). 5 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: Spanish, French.
The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, Vols. 1 & 2 [DVD] DVD
"Dr. Cyclops" (1940) stars Albert Dekker as a mad scientist who shrinks five people to miniature size and holds them prisoner. A group of American G.I.s stumbles on the secret rituals of the snake-worshipping "Cult of the Cobra" (1955). Faith Domergue, Richard Long, David Janssen star. A lab experiment unleashes a rapidly growing "Tarantula" (1955). John Agar, Leo G. Carroll star. Archeologists Agar and Hugh Beaumont discover a clawed, bug-eyed race called "The Mole People" (1956). Grant Williams is "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) who begins to diminish in size after exposure to radiation. Meteorite fragments absorb water from everything around them (including people), creating "The Monolith Monsters" (1957). An expedition to Antarctica finds a prehistoric world, in "The Land Unknown" (1957). Earthquakes release a giant prehistoric insect from suspended animation, in "The Deadly Mantis" (1957). A college biology instructor is transformed into a Neanderthal man, in "Monster on the Campus" (1958). A native African ritual turn s a scientist's wife into "The Leech Woman" (1960). 13 hrs. total on six discs. Standard/Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English (SDH), French; theatrical trailers.
House On Haunted Hill [DVD](1959) DVD
A sinister host offers a group of people $10,000 each if they'll spend the night in his macabre mansion, then does his best (or worst) to see that no one collects! Spook-filled shocker from the legendary William Castle stars Vincent Price, Richard Long, Carol Ohmart and Elisha Cook, Jr.; not in "Emergo." 75 min. Standard and Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French; theatrical trailer.
Follow The Boys (Remastered Edition) [DVD](1963) DVD
This zesty musical comedy stars Connie Francis as a newlywed trying to catch up with her naval officer husband after he was called back to active duty during their honeymoon. She hooks up with three other gals (Paula Prentiss, Dany Robin, Janis Paige) also on their way to meet their seafaring guys, and together the ladies embark on a fun adventure across the French and Italian Riviera. Roger Perry, Russ Tamblyn also star. Songs include the title tune (a Top 20 hit for Francis), "Waiting for Billy," "Sleepyland," and more. 95 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.
The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped [DVD](1974) DVD
Romantic comedy about a Hugh Hefner-like girlie magazine publisher who receives a most unusual birthday present on his doorstep: a small-town girl wearing a bikini and a red bow and hoping to become a star. Perky Karen Valentine stars in the title role; with Richard Long, Tom Bosley and Farrah Fawcett. 74 min. Soundtrack: English.

richard long photos and posters available

filmography

FILM
Death Cruise (1974) with Polly Bergen, Kate Jackson, Celeste Holm, Tom Bosley, and Cesare Danova
The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped (1974) with Karen Valentine, Tom Bosley, Farrah Fawcett, Dave Madden, and Louise Sorel
Make Like a Thief (1964)
The Tenderfoot (1964) with Brian Keith, Brandon De Wilde, and James Whitmore
Follow the Boys (1963) with Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Janis Paige, Russ Tamblyn, Ron Randell, and Roger Perry
Tokyo After Dark (1959)
House on Haunted Hill (1959) with Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Carolyn Craig, and Elisha Cook Jr.
He Laughed Last (1956) with Frankie Laine, Anthony Dexter, and Jesse White
Fury at Gunsight Pass (1956) with David Brian, Neville Brand, Lisa Davis, and Morris Ankrum
Cult of the Cobra (1955) with Faith Domergue, Marshall Thompson, Kathleen Hughes, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly, and David Janssen
Playgirl (1954) with Shelley Winters, Barry Sullivan, Colleen Miller, Gregg Palmer, Kent Taylor, and and Mara Corday
Saskatchewan (1954) with Alan Ladd, Shelley Winters, J. Carrol Naish, and Hugh O'Brian
All American (1953) with Tony Curtis, Lori Nelson, Mamie Van Doren, Gregg Palmer, Stuart Whitman, and Frank Gifford
All I Desire (1953) with Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Lyle Bettger, Marcia Henderson, Lori Nelson, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Billy Gray
Back at the Front (1952) with Tom Ewell, Harvey Lembeck, Mari Blanchard, Gregg Palmer, and Russell Johnson Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951) with Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, and Ray Collins
Air Cadet (1951) with Stephen McNally, Gail Russell, Alex Nicol, Charles Drake, Rock Hudson, Peggie Castle, James Best, and Parley Baer
Kansas Raiders (1950) with Audie Murphy, Brian Donlevy, Marguerite Chapman, Scott Brady, Tony Curtis, Richard Arlen, James Best, Dewey Martin, and Richard Egan
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950) with Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, Charles McGraw, Jim Backus, and Hal March
The Life of Riley (1949) with William Bendix and Rosemary DeCamp
Ma and Pa Kettle (1949) with Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, and Meg Randall
Criss Cross (1949) with Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, and Alan Napier
Tap Roots (1948) with Van Heflin, Susan Hayward, Boris Karloff, Julie London, and Ward Bond
The Egg and I (1947) with Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Louise Allbritton, and Percy Kilbride
The Dark Mirror (1946) with Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, and Thomas Mitchell
The Stranger (1946) with Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Orson Welles
Tomorrow Is Forever (1946) with Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent, and Natalie Wood

TELEVISION SERIES
Thicker Than Water, 1973 TV series. Long portrayed Ernie Paine
Nanny and the Professor, 1970-1971 ABC TV series. Long portrayed Professor Harold Everett
The Big Valley, 1965-1969 ABC TV series. Long portrayed Jarrod Barkley. Also starring in this series were Barbara Stanwyck, Peter Breck, Lee Majors, and Linda Evans
77 Sunset Strip, 1958-1964 ABC TV series. Long portrayed Rex Randolph during the 1960-1961 season
Bourbon Street Beat, 1959-1960 ABC TV series. Long portrayed Rex Randolph. Also starring in this series was Van Williams
Maverick, 1957-1962 ABC TV series. Long portrayed Gentleman Jack Darby during the 1958-1959 season. Also starring in this series was Peter Breck, Jack Kelly, and James Garner

richard long film now showing

Watch Richard Long in the 1959 William Castle film House on Haunted Hill