Raymon Lee Cramton (June 11, 1937 - July 24, 2012), known professionally as Chad Everett, was an American actor with a prolific career spanning more than 40 films and television series. A masculine leading man on television and in the occasional feature during the late 1960s and 1970s, Chad Everett rose to fame as a young doctor on the popular drama "Medical Center" (CBS, 1969-1976) before enjoying a long career as a series lead and guest player on the small screen for over four decades.
Everett's father was a racecar driver, racing mechanic, and auto parts salesman. Some confusion existed regarding the year of his birth. According to The Washington Post, "many reference sources list Mr. Everett's date of birth as 1936, but legal records indicate he was born one year later. Everett said he did not mind the change because he was tired of explaining his real name: "Raymon-no-D, Cramton-no-P."
He was raised in Dearborn, Michigan, where he attended Fordson High School. While there, he played on the football team as a quarterback and began acting in stage plays at age 14. During his junior year at Wayne State University in Detroit, he joined a State Department-sponsored acting troupe that toured India. "I went into acting because I'm easily bored," Everett once said.
Everett's first notable role came in an episode of the 1960-1962 detective series Surfside 6. His first major role came a year later in the film Claudelle Inglish, and he played a deputy in the short-lived 1963 ABC Western television series The Dakotas. After appearing in a number of movies and television series in the later 1960s, he got his big break, landing the role of Dr.
Everett left the Midwest in 1960 for Hollywood, where he enjoyed a minor career as a youthful romantic lead in modest features like Made in Paris (1966) and The Singing Nun (1966). Medical Center, which partnered him with James Daly as surgeons at a Los Angeles university hospital, thrust him into stardom, but he never found a subsequent project that equaled its popularity. However, Everett remained a constant presence on television well into the new millennium, playing gracefully aging fathers, stern authority figures and even the occasionally mature romantic role.
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He appeared in numerous films and television series, including The Singing Nun, Centennial, Hagen, Airplane II: The Sequel, Star Command, and Mulholland Drive. In 1987, Everett supplied the voice of Ultraman Chuck in the English version of the animated movie Ultraman: The Adventure Begins and voiced several characters in the animated television series The New Yogi Bear Show. In 2001, Everett played one brief scene with Naomi Watts in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.
Here are some of Chad Everett's notable roles:
- Combat!
- The F.B.I.
- Medical Center (1969-1976, TV series) as Dr.
- Diagnosis: Murder (1997, episode: 'Physician, Murder Thyself') as Dr.
- The Nanny (1998, TV series) as Dr.
- Frank McKlusky, C.I.
- The Pink Conspiracy (2007) as Dr.
- Mulholland Dr.
Chad Everett in 1973
Personal Life
Everett married actress Shelby Grant in Tucson, Arizona on May 22, 1966. Everett was on location in Tucson filming the 1967 movie Return of the Gunfighter at the time of their wedding. They had two daughters, Katherine and Shannon. The couple remained married for 45 years until her death after a brain aneurysm on June 25, 2011.
Everett credited his family with being a stabilizing force in his life, stating that even in the worst of times, Grant "never threatened to leave. She would tell me that she was there for me. If not for my family, I would have been in big trouble." Grant noted his romanticism; he sent her so many flowers during their courtship that "my balcony looked like a burial ground." He also often wrote sentimental poems to Grant throughout their marriage, as well as to his daughters.
After Medical Center ended, Everett became frustrated when no movie roles were forthcoming and television roles were not working out. A long-time social drinker, he began drinking heavily. He was consuming a quart of vodka a day by the time he quit drinking in 1986. "I was a functional alcoholic." Shelby noted his alcohol-related mood swings and has said, "[F]inally I confronted him. I came into the bedroom with a big pot of coffee one morning and said 'we have a major problem to deal with here.'" A month later, Everett caught sight of himself on a video and did not like what he saw. "'Finally,' I said, 'I am really in trouble'. I stepped outside and I looked up and said 'Father, you take it. I can't handle it anymore.'" The next day, he told his daughters (who were living at home at the time), "I am addicted to alcohol, and I am not going away to detox.
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During an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show that aired on March 31, 1972, Everett gifted a pair of panties to fellow guest Lily Tomlin. Beginning in 1973, actress Sheila Scott initiated court proceedings against Everett three times, claiming her son Dale (born 1973) was fathered by him. The lengthy and complicated paternity suit ended in 1984 when a California Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Everett. "From the evidence adduced, the jury concluded that Everett was not Dale's father despite the 94.67 percent probability of paternity from the HLA test"... Everett refused to take any more tests regarding paternity. He entered into a private financial settlement with Scott in 1973 but steadfastly maintained he was not Dale's father.
In 1991, Scott was sentenced to three months' probation following a guilty verdict of "harassing" Everett for 18 years, including death threats against him and his wife.
Chad Everett and Lily Tomlin on The Dick Cavett Show
Season 1, Episode 11 | Medical Center | Warner Archive
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