NEED TO KNOW
- Randy Boone, an actor featured in three seasons of the long-running NBC Western The Virginian, has died at 83
- His wife, Lana, confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter as friends shared tributes to social media
- Boone also appeared in The Twilight Zone, NBC’s It’s a Man’s World and CBS’ Western Cimarron Strip
Randy Boone, an actor and singer who appeared in NBC’s The Virginian, has died. He was 83.
Boone’s wife, Lana, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he died on Thursday, Aug. 28. Friends have since remembered him via social media tributes as “humble, soft spoken” and a “great person.”
Boone, a North Carolina native, notably portrayed Randy Benton on one of television’s longest-running Westerns, The Virginian, during three of its seasons from 1964 to 1966.
His other work included stints on the CBS Western Cimarron Strip, NBC’s It’s a Man’s World as Vern Hodges and in The Twilight Zone‘s 1963 episode “The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms.”
Gene Trindl / TV Guide / courtesy Everett Collection
Boone, who was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, got his on-screen start on It’s a Man’s World as Hodges, a character who shared both his home state and ability to play guitar.
According to the book A History of Television’s The Virginian, 1962-1971 by Paul Green, per THR, Boone briefly attended North Carolina State College in Raleigh before his first on-lens gig. He decided to “hitchhike around the country” for several months before winding up in Los Angeles.
Following the show’s run from 1962 to 1963, Boone — who was under contract with Universal Studios and purchased his own horse named Clyde, per THR — secured the role of Benton on The Virginian as he joined a cast starring James Drury, who died in 2020.
“He acted very much like a real horse, and I got a lot of fan mail about how he didn’t stand still. He was spirited,” Boone said in the book of his horse, per THR.
Boone, who first appeared in the show’s second season and departed following the end of its fourth, not only rode his own horse for the series, but he also wrote many of his own songs. He released his solo album, Ramblin’ Randy, in 1965, as well as The Singing Stars of The Virginian with co-star Roberta Shore that same year.
Silver Screen Collection/Getty
His other television and film roles included a 1963 one-episode stint on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, as aspiring reporter Francis Wilde in CBS’ Cimarron Strip in 1967, and in films such as 1966’s Country Boy and 1973’s Terminal Island.
Boone’s later work included an appearance on Kurt Russell’s Western The Quest in 1976, a 1985 appearance on Highway to Heaven and a role in the 1987 film The Wild Pair, per IMDB.
According to THR, he began working in construction in the late ’80s.
“We started our friendship over a dozen years ago when he came back home for a little mini-show and Q&A at Sandhills beat Center. He still had that same country boy look and charisma as he did in the roles he played on TV decades earlier,” friend Rick Lewis wrote in a Facebook tribute. “He was humble, soft spoken and had a way of making you feel special.”
“What an amazing story for such an amazing man from our little neck of the woods.”
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