Rick Jason
Fresh from his star turn as suave insurance investigator Robin Scott in the
syndicated series “The Case of the Dangerous Robin,” Rick Jason was cast as Sergeant Gil Hanley. This was not Rick Jason’s first time in uniform. Rick volunteered for military service in 1943 and
became a cadet in the Army Air Corps. After washing out of flight school because
of problems with the required math, he says he bravely fought the battle of
Nashville, working in public relations. Later, he was transferred to his home state
of New York, where he worked in a convalescent hospital with combat fatigue
patients and amputees in a special rehabilitative program. Rick finished his
military career by teaching horseback riding in the Air Corps.
Richard Jason was born in New York City on May 21, 1923 into a wealthy family.
In a 1962 TV Guide article, he laughingly described himself as second generation nouveau riche and a born romantic. A hell-raiser as a child, he was expelled from eight
prep schools before he finally graduating.
Expecting him to follow in his footsteps, Rick’s father bought him a seat on the Curb stock exchange (now the AMEX). But Rick
sold the seat and enlisted in the Army Air Corp. After the war, he attended
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on the G.I. Bill. While learning his craft,
he lived in a cheap, furnished room and paid the bills with odd jobs as a
riding instructor, soda jerk, auditor, and hotel clerk.
Actor-director Hume Cronyn discovered him in the audience of a play and cast
him in the Broadway show "Now I Lay me Down to Sleep." The part earned Rick a
Theater World Award and offers for contracts with four movie studios.
After success in the 1952 film “Sombrero,” one movie fan magazine proclaimed him as a star of the future. He had
featured and leading roles in films with Columbia, RKO, and 20th Century Fox and was
signed to a multiple-picture contract with Fox. His first project, an adaptation
of John Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus," earned him critical acclaim and a
string of roles in films and on television. It also brought him to the attention of
Orson Welles, who cast him in the only project Welles directed for television: “The Fountain of Youth.”
Rick received over 30 offers for leads in television series and eventually
accepted the “Dangerous Robin” series in 1960. The show ran 38 episodes and is notable as the first TV
series that featured karate. Though Rick was adept at karate, the martial arts were
not widely established at the time, so no knowledgeable karate stuntman could
not be found for Rick to challenge in the weekly battles. Jason’s instructor was pressed into service for on-screen action.
Rick Jason originally turned down Combat! But his agent convinced him to take a chance on the series, pointing out that
no war movie (up to that time) had ever lost money at the box office.
After Combat! ended in 1967, Rick returned to the theater. He also made films in Japan and
Israel. In 1970, he took the lead in the pilot, "Prudence and the Chief." In
this spoof of "The King and I," Rick played the Chief of the Cheyenne nation
opposite Sally Ann Howes, the teacher of his children. The network didn’t pick up the series. In 1973, he became a regular on “The Young and the Restless.” Rick’s TV career remained strong; he guested on dozens of prime-time shows through
the seventies and eighties. He also was in demand for voice-overs and
commercial work.
Today, retired from acting, Rick lives with his wife Cindy in Moorpark,
California. He is the owner and manager of The Wine Locker, a 4,000 square-foot
facility to store fine wines under optimal conditions. He continues to indulge his
many and varied interests: woodworking, carpentry, cooking, photography, and
breeding tropical fish. Rick speaks Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese. Most of
all, he enjoys outdoor adventures, especially hunting and fishing.