Ralph Taeger
Ralph Taeger ( born July 30, 1936 in Queens, New York ) is an American actor. His acting career includes over 20 roles in productions for film and television. He starred in movies such as The X-15 ready, Madame P. and her girls or the delta factor. He became known especially by the two American television series of the 1960s Klondike and Hondo, where he embodied the courier rider Hondo Lane.
Life and work
Ralph Taeger, born in 1936 in New York City's Richmond Hill, the son of German-born parents, first a sporting career in professional baseball with the Los Angeles Dodgers aimed at, but a knee injury ended that dream prematurely. In the late 1950s, a high school teacher had recognized his physical and dramatic talent and made him aware of the possibility of a career in film, Taeger began studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and moonlighted as a male model. He moved from the East Coast to the West Coast to the Beverly Hills Playhouse and within six months he was given a seven-year contract with MGM and a first small role in George Marshall's romantic comedy A great number. Encouraged by this first success in Hollywood, Taeger be applied in parallel or in television in 1960 and got small roles in episodes of popular TV series such as in law of righteousness, Bat Masterson or underwater adventure.
In 1961 he made his breakthrough with his role as a prospector Mike Halliday in the Western series Klondike, whose plot was located in Alaska at the time of the Gold Rush. In the same year he also played his first leading role as a test pilot of a new rocket vehicle in Richard Donner's science fiction drama The X-15 ready to go on the side of Charles Bronson and Brad Dexter. He also embodied the Patrick Malone, a Korean War veteran, in eight episodes of the series Acapulco.
In 1964, he played a few prominent supporting roles as in Edward Dmytryks Drama The Insatiable, in William F. Claxton's Western Stagecoach to Thunder rock or in Russell Rouse Drama Madame P. and her girl next to Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor and Cesar Romero. In addition, he starred in the television series The Twilight Zone and 1965 in a series of solo for Oncel
His biggest success in 1967 as a courier Taeger rider Hondo Lane in the western series Hondo, where he was John Wayne been in the Western One calls this figure Hondo had successfully played in 1953 in the cinema, in a total of 17 episodes could embody. In 1970 he played in Tay Garnett's spy thriller The Delta Factor in the ensemble to Yvette Mimieux, Christopher George and Diane McBain.
In the 1970s and 1980s, his career stagnated in film and television, and he was seen only in a few TV productions as a guest star. 1975, among others, in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man or 1977 and 1982 in various episodes of the crime series Quincy. In 1983 he had his last television appearance in the series Father Murphy.
In 1967 he married Linda Taeger Jarrett, they have a son together.