Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.

Biography

In his youth, Boone attended the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, near Oceanside. It was there that Boone was introduced to theatre under the tutelage of Virginia Atkinson, who spawned theatre interest in many who eventually found their way to Hollywood. Robert Walker, another Academy graduate and member of the school’s theatre club, Masque & Wig, became a close acquaintance of Boone's.

Boone was married three times: to Jane Hopper (1937–1940), Mimi Kelly (1949–1950), and Claire McAloon (1951–81 (his death)).

In her 2004 autobiography "'Tis Herself", Maureen O'Hara wrote that Boone and Peter Lawford were arrested in a gay bar in Melbourne, Australia, while filming Kangaroo. The studio managed to prevent this from being reported by the press.

Boone's son with Claire McAloon, Peter, worked as a child actor in several of his father's Have Gun-Will Travel television shows. He resides in Virginia.

Boone moved to St. Augustine, Florida, from Hawaii in 1970 and worked with the production of Cross and Sword, when he was not acting on television or in movies, until his death in 1981. In the last year of his life, Boone was appointed Florida's cultural ambassador. During the 1970s, he wrote a newspaper column for the St. Augustine Record called "It Seems To Me." He also gave acting lectures at Flagler College in 1972–1973. In his final role, Boone played Commodore Matthew C. Perry in Bushido Blade. He died soon afterward in St. Augustine of pneumonia while suffering from throat cancer. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii.

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