men's sweaters became

His portrayal of the charismatic Father de Bricassart, who fell in forbidden love for the beautiful farmer's daughter Meggie, moved into the 1980s, more than 200 million people on the screens. Especially female fans were entranced by the charm of the US-actor.

Twenty years later, now living in Hawaii, told the Chamberlain: "Some women sit for six weeks before my door and begin to shriek with delight when I just drive my car from the parking lot." Today is the TV heartbreaker 75 years old. His long blond hair is gray, but the smile remained.

Numerous scandals have been the attractive bachelor in his long career reputed - as with his partner, Rachel Ward, The Thorn Birds or with Denver-star Linda Evans. But in his 2003 release, Shattered Love biography he openly about his homosexuality and his longtime partner. "When I was growing up, it was taboo and forbidden," to be gay, he said. To hide this part of his ego, he had to play the "perfect Richard."

The love scenes with its TV partners that went to the audience so much to heart, took the actor rather calmly. "One has to take care of a wig, a shade, an angle. Your arm is falling asleep, because you have stooped to the same elbow for three hours about her. And you try not to smudge her lipstick and make no Schlurfger?usche while you kiss her. "

His breakthrough was a world star Chamberlain in 1961 as the title hero in the U.S. physicians Dr. Kildare series, which ran in 190 episodes for five years and made him overnight teen idol. But the actor, who had also studied art and singing, would not be set on the role as "Prince Charming". For years he worked mainly for the theater and assumed - for instance in Julius Caesar and The Towering Inferno - challenging film roles.

Despite the successes there, Chamberlain was the uncrowned "King of the Series": Count of Monte Cristo, as John Blackthorne in Shogun,men's sweaters, and as an adventure series Casanova. Rewarded with a Golden Globe for his performance in the thorn birds by the bestseller by Colleen McCullough followed in 1997 again a sequel that could not build on the phenomenal success of 1983.

"The reason why I became an actor, was my great desire for love. But we discovered that the applause can not give what looks for the soul, "Chamberlain once confessed,men's sweater, who suffered in his youth by his alcoholic father. The TV star enjoyed his long retirement, the silence in his house by the sea and his spiritual studies.

Only occasionally, he can still draw on the stage - as is currently in his first U.S. tour as King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot musical. On his birthday, he enters the Palace Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. "I had a wonderful career," he said recently. "I've had good luck, but I do not feel like a legend. I'm just a normal person who gets up in the morning, brushes his teeth,v-neck sweaters, and life begins. "