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Before becoming a household name, the famously bearded actor was simply a shy teenager with a soft spot for horses.
With matinee idol good looks that never seem to fade, a remarkably thick mane of silver-gray hair, and bright green eyes that twinkle when he smiles, James Brolin has been a Hollywood mainstay for more than 40 years. It was his Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning portrayal of the youthful Dr. Steven Kiley on Marcus Welby, M.D. that brought him to the attention of the country in the late ’60s and ’70s. But it was his recurring role on a ’60s western television series that brought him to the attention of Hollywood.
In his mid-20s Brolin was cast for four episodes as the young cowboy Dalton Wales — playing opposite Barbara Hershey, Michael Anderson Jr., and Liam Sullivan — on The Monroes, the story of five young orphans trying to survive as a family on the frontier in northwestern Wyoming. “That was a great time,” he says. “I was shipped out to Jackson Hole and went, ‘Wow, what a life this is.’ You’re on your own but know exactly what’s going to happen. I was given a per diem by the production office, a horse to ride, and really latched on to this kind of life.”
Not long after his appearances on The Monroes came the year that changed everything. In January 1969 Brolin had a single before-they-were-famous appearance on The Virginian in the episode “Crime Wave in Buffalo Springs.” His one-time role as Ned Trumball, the bank-robbing son of a banker, was a world away from the motorcycle-riding physician he would become in September.
Beating out a dozen or more handsome young men screen testing for the role of Dr. Steven Kiley, Brolin got his big break. He had good rapport with the seasoned Robert Young, who played senior doctor Marcus Welby, and he clicked with the role as the ambitious young doctor who ultimately joins the practice of the aging general practitioner. Brolin won an Emmy in 1970 for his work on the show, and he would go on to win two Golden Globes. Marcus Welby, M.D. ruled the ratings for seven years, becoming one of the most popular doctor shows in U.S. television history and making Brolin a household name.
In the middle of his run on Welby, Brolin got an opportunity to delve into another western role, this time on the big screen in the 1973 sci-fi thriller Westworld. Written and directed by best-selling author Michael Crichton, Westworld starred Yule Brynner as the Gunslinger, a lifelike robot cowboy who goes rogue, killing paying vacationers in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park. Brolin was cast as the ill-fated vacationing businessman John Blane, who is out to experience an Old West fantasy with buddy Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin). Challenged to a showdown with the Gunslinger, Blane thinks it’s just another amusement — until he finds out, too late, that the bullets are all too real.
Even though Westworld wasn’t a typical western, the film did give Brolin some equine screen time. “I was quite pleased to be able to ride on-screen again,” he says. “At that time I had a small, 6-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley and was housing seven horses out there chewing the wood on the fences. I was able to take one of my own horses, a leopard appaloosa, and ride him in the movie.”
Several years earlier Brolin had bought his first horse for $235 at an auction in Chino, California — without having a place to keep him. “So I kept him in the garage. The minute the floor got wet, we would both slip and slide. We soon moved to a tight, half-acre ranchette and finally had a decent turnout for that gelding.”
To this day, that first horse, a beautiful palomino, brings back fond memories. “He had been trained for a sheriff to ride in the Rose Parade,” Brolin remembers with a laugh. “You’d be riding this horse and turn around to speak with someone behind you, accidentally kick him in the flank, and he’d start prancing sideways. So I said, ‘Wait a minute,’ and tried the other side and he pranced in the opposite direction.”
After Westworld came a decade of leading roles in films, including Capricorn One, The Amityville Horror, Night of the Juggler, and Gable and Lombard (which Brolin cites as his “favorite film-making experience of all time”). But Brolin still remembers the role that got away. “During this time I screen tested for the role of James Bond in Octopussy, as Roger Moore had made the decision to leave the franchise; but at the last minute he decided to continue playing the suave 007, which was a real disappointment.”
Moving on in his career, in 1983 Brolin teamed up with hit-maker Aaron Spelling, executive producer of Charlie’s Angels and Dynasty, to star as Peter McDermott in the ABC prime time soap opera Hotel. As a hotel manager who gets involved with the guests’ lives to help solve pressing problems, Brolin rode the ratings winner to two Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama.
In 1993 he shone in the TV movie Gunsmoke: The Long Ride, playing down-and-out preacher John Parsley, who comes to Matt Dillon’s aid after the marshal is arrested on trumped-up murder charges and must hunt the actual murderer with a posse on his trail. Brolin’s next big turn on TV would see him leave the Old West for the modern-day military in the action-packed Pensacola: Wings of Gold. For the three-year series (1997 – 2000) Brolin served as executive producer, director (10 episodes), and lead character Lt. Col. Bill “Raven” Kelly, a veteran officer working with a group of young Marines to mold them into elite fighter pilots.
Moving up in gravitas, in 2002 Brolin guest-starred in a two-part arc on The West Wing as presidential candidate Governor Robert Ritchie. A year later he continued in the political vein after nabbing the role of president of the United States. Cast as Ronald Reagan in the 2003 miniseries The Reagans, the self-deprecating actor says he got the part because “most likely every other decent actor in Hollywood turned the role down.” If they sensed controversy coming, they were right: The production was embroiled in it when portions of the script were leaked and conservatives decried the 180-minute show as an unfair and unfavorable portrayal of the 40th president.
“Having never seen the miniseries, the network received more than 30,000 negative e-mails from the Young Republicans,” Brolin says, “and the network bent to the pressure.” CBS moved the show to its cable affiliate, Showtime, and The Reagans aired to very good ratings; Brolin went on to be nominated for both a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for his performance.
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