David Janssen makes a decent man’s exhaustion convincing without asking us to applaud his decency. We value him most in The Fugitive, where his restraint keeps a repeated predicament worth following.
Fi1m perspective
Richard Kimble looks tired, and David Janssen lets that tiredness matter. In The Fugitive (1963), he plays the doctor as a man whose determination takes effort, not someone fitted with an endless supply of courage. We were moved by how much work it seemed to take him to remain decent under pressure. Janssen gives us enough strength to believe Kimble can continue, and enough fatigue to worry about the cost. It is a persuasive performance to spend a long series with.
After years of supporting film work, Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957) gave him his first starring television series. The part offered limited scope, and his early attempts to establish himself in films had mixed results. The defining turn came with The Fugitive, which put his quiet desperation at the centre of a continuing story. His toughness matters, but it is the lack of swagger that makes him good company. A more assertive performance would make Kimble’s danger easier to dismiss.
Roy Huggins’s series also shows how easily a programme can over-explain what Janssen has already made clear. William Conrad’s narration sometimes presses the danger harder than it needs to, sitting awkwardly beside a leading man who can communicate the strain without such insistence. The narration does help keep the changing stories clear, but we occasionally wished it would leave him alone. The repeated predicament remains a limitation, too: a convincing actor cannot make every return to trouble feel new. The mixture of crime, action and melodrama gives him different pressures to respond to.
His film career proved less distinguished, often leaving him in supporting roles even after his television success. Later series included O’Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971) and Harry O (1974), the latter allowing a more casual, endearing side to emerge as detective Harry Orwell. These were further leading roles for an actor repeatedly cast as terse, decent men facing danger. Start with The Fugitive, provided an emphatic narrator does not put you off a quiet leading man.
Biography
David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer) was an American actor. He was born on 27 March 1931 in Naponee, Nebraska, and died on 13 February 1980 in Malibu, California.
He began his career with a bit part in It's a Pleasure (1945) and signed contracts with 20th Century-Fox and later Universal, appearing in numerous supporting film roles. He gained prominence on television as the star of Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–1960).
Janssen is best known for playing Dr Richard Kimble in the series The Fugitive (1963–1967). He later starred in O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971–1972) and Harry O (1974–1976), and appeared in films including The Green Berets (1968).
