Richard Chamberlain of ‘Dr. Kildare’ caught acting bug at Pomona College – Press Enterprise

Richard Chamberlain was the heartthrob actor who rose to fame as TV’s “Dr. Kildare,” from 1961-66, and later became king of the miniseries. It’s said that 70 million saw “Shogun” and 110 million saw “The Thorn Birds,” numbers that seem unreal in today’s niche TV landscape.

Chamberlain, who died Saturday at age 90, might not have done any of that if not for his years at Pomona College. (There is always a local angle, isn’t there?)

At Beverly Hills High, he never acted in school plays. While intrigued by acting, he told Pomona College Magazine in 2003, he had “near-catatonic inhibition” and lived in fear of embarrassing himself.

So when he enrolled at Pomona College in 1952, he majored in painting and art history. The campus, he recalled, was “the perfect place for a dreamy romantic.”

Early in his freshman year, Chamberlain accompanied friends to the campus’ Holmes Hall simply to observe tryouts for a comedy, “George Washington Slept Here.” The director spotted the strikingly handsome young man in the audience and persuaded him to read for a part.

“I got a few laughs… and I was hooked,” Chamberlain wrote in his memoir, “Shattered Love.”

He kept acting throughout his college years. But he also competed on the track team, sang in the choir and continued with his art studies. Acting didn’t seem like a viable option.

Then in his senior year, he was cast as the romantic lead in George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” and found himself inspired. On opening night, he basked in thunderous applause. It was a turning point.

As he put it in “Shattered Love”: “I gleefully decided to throw fine arts out the window.”

A Paramount Studios talent scout took notice and a seven-year contract was offered. However, Chamberlain was drafted into the military before he could sign on the dotted line, which in the long run may have been a stroke of good fortune.

When he returned from Korea in 1958, a fellow Pomona alum, Robert Towne, later the screenwriter of “Chinatown,” recommended an acting workshop led by Jeff Corey that was all the buzz.

Chamberlain came out of the workshop with a top agent. A guest role on TV’s “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” followed, as did his signature role as young Dr. Kildare and a half-century of stage, screen and TV work.

Chamberlain returned to Pomona College at least once. In 1981, near the height of his second wave of fame, he gave the commencement address.

I don’t know if students were impressed or not. But I’ll bet their mothers swooned.

More ‘Kildare’

“Dr. Kildare” was before my time, but from what I’ve read, the medical drama about an intern at a metropolitan hospital was incredibly popular. The series spawned novels, comic books, toys, games, candy bars and a record album of the star singing.

A reputed 12,000 fan letters a week came in. Some asked the actor for medical advice. Viewers tended to confuse actors with their characters.

However, if any of them wanted a cure for near-catatonic inhibition, Chamberlain was their guy.

Desert trip

As noted here March 26, I would be taking the rest of the week off. A friend asked by text: “This your annual Joshua Tree vacation?” Indeed it was. My fifth annual.

One year I went during my birthday week, but the past two years the weather didn’t cooperate. I’m not going to Joshua Tree when the high temp is 50 degrees. But with last week’s burst of good weather, and with no obligations here, off I went for three nights at a budget motel.

What did I do in the desert?

I visited the national park three times for short hikes. A little sand got in my shoes, and a few cholla needles lodged in my hand, but as always, the landscape is unearthly and inspiring.

At a gift shop in town, I did what I always do: buy a couple of soaps with desert scents. This time it was Dandelion and Passionflower. It’s a way of bringing a little desert home with me.

While I am an omnivore, something about Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms makes me eschew red meat. Vegetarian and vegan options abound at restaurants, even at roadhouse diners, a nod to the tastes of the 3 million-plus annual visitors.

Nearly every meal I ate was vegetarian: a spinach omelet, a salad with crispy tofu, a veggie pizza, brussels sprouts, falafel, spinach enchiladas, a tofu scramble. I can’t explain it. But no doubt it was good for me.

The leftover half of my pizza, by the way, was taken with me the next day to the national park. Per my personal tradition, the cardboard box was placed on my dash while I hiked, allowing the pizza to reheat naturally in the sun, ready for me when I got back.