Dack Rambo(1941-1994)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dack (given name Norman) and identical twin brother,
Dirk Rambo (Orman), were born in sunny
California in 1941. Dack's noticeable difference was a mole on his left
cheek. Both happened upon an acting career, at age 21, after being
discovered by Loretta Young for her TV
show, while sitting in a church pew. The sons of Lester and Beatrice
Rambo, the brothers also had another brother and sister, Bill and
Beverly. Dack's early training began as a student of
Vincent Chase and
Lee Strasberg, and both boys found
employment, following the one-season stint on Loretta's TV show, in
1963. While Dirk found success on episodic-TV
(The Virginian (1962),
Dragnet 1967 (1967)), Dack went
on to a couple of other TV series, including
Never Too Young (1965) and
The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967).
Dirk was tragically killed in 1967, after being struck by a drunken
driver. A stunned Dack ventured on, however, and eventually found a
secure place for his dark good looks in 70s and 80s glossy drama and
secondary action. He played many a calculating lover in both daytime
(All My Children (1970),
Another World (1964)) and
prime-time (Dallas (1978)) soaps,
while showing off his athletic skills in such outdoor adventure series
as Sword of Justice (1978).
Later in his career, he worked up a few action leads in low-budget
filming. In 1991, while appearing on
Another World (1964), Dack
discovered he had contracted AIDS and made a courageous decision to
retire in order to focus on awareness of this deadly disease. He was
extremely candid as to his bisexuality and
advocating safe sex and helping to establish an international data bank
for AIDS research. He died of complications in 1994 at age 52.
