American actor Richard Chamberlain was BOTD in 1934. Born in Beverley Hills, California, he attended Pomona College before being drafted into the US Army, serving in the Korean War. He returned to Calfornia where he established a theatre group and began appearing in television shows. In 1961 he was cast as the handsome young doctor in squeaky-clean TV series Dr Kildare, making him the object of desire for millions of American women (and quite a few men). Tired of his matinee idol image, he moved to England in the late 1960s, starring in a television adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady and playing Hamlet for Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Returning to Hollywood in the 1970s, he had a string of hits as romantic leads in historical dramas The Music Lovers, Lady Caroline Lamb, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask. In the 1980s, he was crowned “King of the Mini-Series” for his leading roles in the romantic drama The Thorn Birds (playing a serially unfaithful priest), Casanova and King Solomon’s Mines. Seeking to diversify his heart-throb image, he also appeared in Centennial, Shögun and The Bourne Identity, and portrayed war hero Raoul Wallenberg in Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story. In later life he returned to theatre, appearing in Broadway revivals of My Fair Lady and a guest spot on TV series Will and Grace and Desperate Housewives. Chamberlain’s cult status was finally canonised by David Lynch, who cast him his 2017 reboot of Twin Peaks. Closeted for most of his career, Chamberlain was outed by a French magazine in 1989, finally acknowledging his homosexuality in his 2003 memoir. He was in a 33-year relationship with actor Martin Rabbett, separating amicably in 2010. He died at his home in Hawaii in 2025, aged 90.