Character Biography
Dr. Kimble, who was born on March 27, 1927 in Stafford, Indiana, is a respected pediatrician in Stafford. He had served as a medic in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. "The Savage Street" establishes that Kimble originally wanted to be a baseball player, but was pressured by his father into becoming a doctor. Kimble met his wife, a Registered Nurse, while he was obtaining his Internship. Helen Kimble grew up and lived in Fairgreen, Indiana (her maiden name was Helen Waverly). They had no children; their only child had been stillborn and Helen had been left infertile.
On the night of September 19, 1961,(this date is from "The Judgment Part 1") Richard returned home to find Helen murdered and a one-armed man fleeing the scene. The circumstantial evidence points to Richard's guilt and he is convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. However, en route to death row he is involved in a train wreck and escapes. He searches for Helen's real killer, while pursued by the relentless police detective Lt. Philip Gerard. This style of show was the prototype for many later American TV series, such as Alias Smith and Jones, The Incredible Hulk, Run For Your Life, Renegade, and the spoof Run, Buddy, Run.
The character was also featured in the 1993 film The Fugitive, based loosely on the original series, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones as a United States marshal in pursuit of him. In the film version, Kimble was a prominent Chicago vascular surgeon rather than a small-town pediatrician. This change was necessary to support the plot change in which the killing of Kimble's wife was not a senseless murder by a transient during a botched robbery attempt (as in the original series) but rather the result of a fiendish plot by an evil drug company executive.
Yet a third incarnation of Richard Kimble surfaced in an updated remake of the original Fugitive series which aired during the 2000-2001 television season. Kimble in this version was portrayed by actor Timothy Daly, whose father James had guest starred in two segments ("Running Scared" and "The Evil Men Do") of the original series.
Read more about this topic: Richard Kimble
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