Aw, Richard Chamberlin has died :(

He was the Original and BEST “Jason Bourne” AND the original John Blackthorne in “Shogun”!

He was in the “Three Musketeers”, he was also in one of my Mum's faves “The Thorn Birds”, an Aussie movie, back when it was rarer to have big name American actors doing Australian films.

He was even Alan Quartermain in two movies, a poor rival to Indiana Jones, but one with a lot more pedigree.

I always thought he looked a bit too “Prety” back in the day, in a sort of alien, elvish way, I mean, LOOK at him, Total elf:



But I fondly remember him.
He even did a voice in the Thundercats.

No more Cardinal de Bricassart.


“The Thorn Birds” had some odd twists and turns. It highlighted Australia’s sheep shearing industry and taught me that wild boars down under are deadly.

“The thorn birds” was a huge hit in Italy at the time, though I was just a little kid so it wasn't for me.

OTOH, I still remember some scenes of Shogun, that was rather violent.
Since I was born in 1976, and Shogun was produced in 1980 so perhaps came to Italy in 1981, I was watching it at 5.
Today it would be classified at minimum 13+, the mindset really changed (in a worse direction IMHO).

The Thorn Birds wasn't for me either. I was a kid. I loved Shogun though. Richard Chamberlin was also in any number of made for TV great books movies like Man in the Iron Mask and three of my favorite movies are the Richard Lester Musketeers movies (Three, Four and Twenty Years Later).

However John Astin just turned 95.

marcorossi wrote:
“The thorn birds” was a huge hit in Italy at the time, though I was just a little kid so it wasn't for me.

Whoa! I didn't realise the Thornbirds was so well known! O_O
Coleen McCullough must have made a packet out of that book.
And you're one year younger than me, haha! Same age as my sister!

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
It highlighted Australia’s sheep shearing industry and taught me that wild boars down under are deadly.

I'm ashamed to say I've never seen it, but yeah we used to be HUGE into shearing and wool back in the day, the country revolved around it before everything shifted to mining. Wheat and sheep were HUGE. Clipper ships like the Cutty Sark would sail down here, to Fremantle near me and ship wool all over the world. Probably mainly Britain and America though haha!
Wild Boars are bad… The movie Razorback is the definitive movie on that LOL!

bravo1102 wrote:
I loved Shogun though.

My sister and I loved it too :D

John Astin is a world treasure.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Whoa! I didn't realise the Thornbirds was so well known! O_O
Coleen McCullough must have made a packet out of that book.

According to Wikipedia.it, “Uccelli di rovo” (italian for Thornbirds) reached peaks of 13 millions watchers (on a total italian population of roughly 57 millions in 1983, so rather high).

I remember my grandparents were great fans, ha ha!

RIP Richard Chamberlain. Such a legend. His role in Shogun was iconic, and The Thorn Birds had such an impact.