Dr. Kildare
Encyclopedia : D : DR : DRK : Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare was a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show. The character was invented by the western fiction author, Frederick Schiller Faust.
The character began the film series as a medical intern; after becoming a doctor he was mentored by an older physician, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. After the first ten films, the series eliminated the character of Kildare and focused instead on Gillespie.
Films in the series included:
- Interns Can't Take Money (1937), starring Joel McCrea as Kildare [IMDb page]
- Young Dr. Kildare (1938), which introduced Lew Ayres in the Kildare role, and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie [IMDb page]
- Calling Dr. Kildare (1939) [IMDb page]
- The Secret of Dr. Kildare (1939) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Kildare's Crisis (1940) [IMDb page]
- The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Kildare's Victory (1942) [IMDb page]
- Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942), which introduced Gillespie's assistants Dr. Randall Adams (Van Johnson) and Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke) [IMDb page]
- Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943) [IMDb page]
- Three Men in White (1944) [IMDb page]
- Between Two Women (1945) [IMDb page]
- Dark Delusion (1947), without Johnson [IMDb page]
Television show
Dr. Kildare was an NBC medical drama television series which ran from September 27, 1961 until April 5, 1966, encompassing a total of 190 episodes. The show, which premiered at the same time as an ABC medical drama, Ben Casey, quickly achieved success and helped spark a number of new shows dealing with the medical field.
"Kildare" told the story of a young intern, Dr. James Kildare (Richard Chamberlain), working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital (Blair General) whilst trying to learn his profession, deal with problems of the patients, and win the respect of the senior doctor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Raymond Massey).
In the series' first episode, Gillespie tells the earnest Kildare, "Our job is to keep people alive, not to tell them how to live." Kildare ignores the advice, providing the basis for stories over the next four seasons, many with a soap opera touch.
The series was largely responsible for making Chamberlain, who beat out 35 other contenders for the role, a teen idol in the 1960s. He also recorded a song, entitled Three Stars Will Shine Tonight, based on its famous theme tune.
Dell Comics published a short-lived comic book based on the tv show. It lasted 9 issues (the first 2 under the Four Color Comics line), from 1962-65.
In 2006 Chamberlin reprised the role in a parody of Grey's Anatomy (Along with other famous TV doctors from "Julia", "St. Elsewhere", "M*A*S*H" and "The Love Boat") on the 2006 TV Land Awards.
Pop Culture References
In a French and Saunders spoof of Doctor Who, Dawn French tells a Doctor Who knock-knock joke: "Knock Knock" "Who's there?" "Doctor." "Doctor Who?" "Doctor Kildare!". LinkExternal link
- [}}} }] at the Internet Movie Database
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.