Richard Kelton

Richard Duane Kelton (April 29, 1943 – November 27, 1978) was an American actor born in Lincoln, Nebraska, whose career spanned television, film, and Broadway before his death at the age of thirty-five.

Kelton began his higher education at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in 1963 before transferring to the University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in drama in 1966 and a master's degree in 1968. He made an early television appearance playing "Bud" in an episode of Gunsmoke, and in 1967 took a small film role as Nancy's boyfriend in In Cold Blood. After relocating to California with his wife in 1970, he secured guest-starring roles on The Young Rebels and The Waltons, and made his television movie debut that same year as Lieutenant Charring in Wild Women.

Kelton continued accumulating television and film credits throughout the early 1970s, returning briefly to the University of Kansas in 1973 to appear in a campus production. In 1976, he originated the role of Nick in the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a performance that earned him a Theatre World Award that year.

Following his Broadway run, Kelton returned to California and appeared as a guest star on ABC's Charlie's Angels. In 1978, he played the recurring role of alien science officer Ficus Pandorata on the short-lived NBC science fiction series Quark. Later that year he was invited back to the University of Kansas to deliver a seminar on film.

Kelton died on November 27, 1978, from accidental carbon monoxide asphyxiation caused by a faulty heater in a trailer he had used to rehearse his lines while filming the NBC miniseries Centennial, in which he was to have co-starred. Universal Studios, which produced the miniseries, was fined $720 for failing to provide adequate ventilation in the trailer. In December 1978, the University of Kansas established the Richard Kelton Memorial Fund to support student actors pursuing professional careers. The fund continues to exist as the Richard Kelton Memorial Scholarship, which provides financial support to undergraduate students majoring in theatre with a concentration in acting.