Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Robert Urich(1946-2002)

  • Actor
  • Producer
  • Writer
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000682
"Spenser: For Hire" Robert Urich 1985 ABC
En route to a camping trip, a newly married cop's family is caught in a gas station robbery, where the wife is seriously injured.
Play trailer2:26
Clover Bend (2002)
7 Videos
77 Photos
Robert Urich grew up in Toronto, Ohio, one of four siblings of Slovak and Rusyn descent, raised Catholic by their parents, John P. Urich (died 1977) and Cecelia (née Halpate) Urich (died 2002). His athletic ability led to a four-year football scholarship at Florida State University (FSU). He earned his Bachelor's degree in Radio and Television Communications from Florida State University in 1968 and his Master's degree in Broadcast Research and Management from Michigan State University in 1971. He joined WGN radio in Chicago as a sales account representative. He then briefly appeared as a TV weatherman, and soon realized he wanted to become an actor.

Urich's big break came in 1972 when he played Burt Reynolds's younger brother in a stage production of "The Rainmaker". Reynolds and Urich were both alumni of FSU. Reynolds brought him to California and let him stay in his home until he got his acting break. He also recommended Urich to producer Aaron Spelling for the TV series S.W.A.T. (1975). Although that series lasted only one season, Spelling remembered Urich and later cast him in Vega$ (1978), which had a longer run.

He was starring in the TV series The Lazarus Man (1996) when he was diagnosed with cancer, which caused the cancellation of the series. The cancer went into remission after treatment and he resumed acting again with his role as Captain Jim Kennedy III on Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998). The cancer would claim Urich's life on April 16, 2002 at the age of 55, survived by his wife, children, siblings, mother (who died later that same year, on October 5, 2002, aged 90) and large extended family.
BornDecember 19, 1946
DiedApril 16, 2002(55)
BornDecember 19, 1946
DiedApril 16, 2002(55)
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000682
  • Awards

Photos77

Robert Urich and Debra Jo Rupp in Spenser: For Hire (1985)
Robert Urich and Debra Jo Rupp in Spenser: For Hire (1985)
Robert Urich and Barbara Stock in Spenser: For Hire (1985)
Avery Brooks and Robert Urich in Spenser: For Hire (1985)
Robert Urich and Emeril Lagasse in Emeril (2000)
Robert Urich and Ray Laska in Emeril (2000)
Robert Urich and Emeril Lagasse in Emeril (2000)
Robert Urich and Tara Karsian in Emeril (2000)
Robert Urich, Carrie Preston, Sherri Shepherd, Lisa Ann Walter, and Emeril Lagasse in Emeril (2000)
Robert Urich and Emeril Lagasse
Robert Urich and Michael Lerner in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973)
Anne Archer, Robert Urich, and Karen Jensen in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973)

Known for

Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973)
Magnum Force
7.2
  • Officer Grimes
  • 1973
The Ice Pirates (1984)
The Ice Pirates
5.6
  • Jason
  • 1984
Lonesome Dove (1989)
Lonesome Dove
8.7
TV Mini Series
  • Jake Spoon
Tony Curtis, Robert Urich, Phyllis Davis, and Judy Landers in Vega$ (1978)
Vega$
6.8
TV Series
  • Dan Tanna

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor

  • A Long Way Home (2003)
    A Long Way Home
  • Anne Archer and Robert Urich in Night of the Wolf (2002)
    Night of the Wolf
  • David Keith and Robert Urich in Clover Bend (2002)
    Clover Bend
  • Chuck Norris in The President's Man: A Line in the Sand (2002)
    The President's Man: A Line in the Sand
  • Late Boomers
  • Robert Urich, Sherri Shepherd, Lisa Ann Walter, and Emeril Lagasse in Emeril (2000)
    Emeril
  • Samantha Mathis, Mackenzie Astin, Ken Marino, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, and James Roday Rodriguez in First Years (2001)
    First Years
  • Louis Gossett Jr. and Oren Williams in For Love of Olivia (2001)
    For Love of Olivia
  • Meredith Baxter, Ernie Hudson, and Robert Urich in Miracle on the 17th Green (1999)
    Miracle on the 17th Green
  • Final Run (1999)
    Final Run
  • Joan Severance, Robert Urich, Stacey Travis, Randy Vasquez, Kyle Howard, Phil Morris, and Corey Parker in Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998)
    Love Boat: The Next Wave
  • Invasion America (1998)
    Invasion America
    • (voice)
  • Boatworks
  • Final Descent (1997)
    Final Descent
  • Robert Urich in Vital Signs (1997)
    Vital Signs

Producer

  • Meredith Baxter, Ernie Hudson, and Robert Urich in Miracle on the 17th Green (1999)
    Miracle on the 17th Green
  • Spenser: Ceremony (1993)
    Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes
  • Blind Man's Bluff (1992)
    Blind Man's Bluff
  • The Defiant Ones (1986)
    The Defiant Ones

Writer

  • Tony Curtis, Robert Urich, Phyllis Davis, and Judy Landers in Vega$ (1978)
    Vega$

Videos7

Trailer
Trailer 2:26
Trailer
DVD Trailer - Season 2
Trailer 1:01
DVD Trailer - Season 2
Trailer
Trailer 0:31
Trailer
S.W.A.T.
Trailer 1:27
S.W.A.T.
The Ice Pirates
Trailer 2:19
The Ice Pirates
Turk 182
Trailer 1:19
Turk 182
S.W.A.T.: Season 1
Trailer 1:49
S.W.A.T.: Season 1

Personal details

Edit
    • Robert Urich at Find-a-Grave
    • December 19, 1946
    • Toronto, Ohio, USA
    • April 16, 2002
    • Thousand Oaks, California, USA(synovial sarcoma)
    • Heather Menzies-UrichNovember 21, 1975 - April 16, 2002 (his death, 3 children)
    • (Grandchild)
  • Other works
    TV commercial for Bayer aspirin.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Print Biography
    • 5 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    His final film, Night of the Wolf (2002), aired on Animal Planet the same day that he died.
  • Quotes
    [2001, in a speech in Wisconsin] Charge forward with hope and get the best medical advice you can. Talk to your friends, neighbors, family, and together you attack it. We can't always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we react to it.

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.