Free Republic

Hugh O’Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television’s first adult Western, has died. He was 91. A representative from HOBY, a philanthropic organization O’Brian founded, says he died at home Monday morning in Beverly Hills. Until “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” debuted in September 1955, most TV Westerns — “The Lone Ranger,” “Hopalong Cassidy,” the singing cowboys’ series — were aimed at adolescent boys. “Wyatt Earp,” on the other hand, was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic. (The real Earp, who lived from...

Hugh O'Brian, who helped tame the Wild West as the star of TV's “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” and was the founder of a long-running youth leadership development organization, has died. He was 91.

GLENDALE, Calif. - "Wyatt Earp" star Hugh O'Brian, 81, has married for the first time in what the couple described as "a wedding to die for." The weekend ceremony was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. "This is my first, and most definitely, my last trip down the aisle," O'Brian said in a statement announcing his marriage Sunday afternoon to his girlfriend of 18 years, teacher Virginia Barber, 54. It was the bride's second marriage. Some 300 guests — including look-alikes of John Wayne and Pope John Paul — witnessed the ceremony at the cemetery's Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection, publicist Monique...