Personal Life
Urich was of Rusyn and Slovak extraction and raised Byzantine Catholic and Roman Catholic in the small town of Toronto, Ohio, where he is honored with the Robert Urich Interchange leading to State Route 7. Due to the similarity in names with Toronto, Ontario, many sources list him incorrectly as being a Canadian. His second wife, actress Heather Menzies, actually is a Canadian from the latter city.
Urich attended Florida State University on a football scholarship. In 1968, he earned a bachelor's degree in Radio and Television Communications. While attending, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. He went on to Michigan State University after working in Ohio to earn a master's degree in Broadcast Research and Management.
Urich was first married to actress Barbara Rucker (1968–74). He married actress Heather Menzies in 1975, and they remained married until his death in 2002. Menzies played one of the von Trapp children, "Louisa," in the film version of The Sound of Music. Urich and Menzies adopted three children, Ryan, Emily and Allison.
In 1996, Urich announced that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, synovial sarcoma, that arises in soft tissues. The TV series he was working on at the time, The Lazarus Man, was ultimately canceled - he cited his failing health as the reason. He continued to appear in film and TV during treatment, but ultimately died from the disease on April 16, 2002 at the age of 55.
Menzies also battled cancer, and is an ovarian cancer survivor. She works with the Robert and Heather Urich Fund for Sarcoma Research at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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