Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "I Talked with a Zombie" (McFarland & Co., 2008).
Is of German, Polish, and English decent.
Lied to get a job when he was seventeen. He had eloped with a lawyer's daughter,who was attending a religious boarding school. The only place he could think of where a kid his age could get decent wage was the loading docks in Chicago. He told them he was 21 and made $1.87 an hour -- $74.40 a week.
Lived with his grandmother when his mother remarried.
Lives in Bear Valley, California, a ski resort village in the High Sierra; has three young daughters, (Kaja Conrad, Camille Conrad, Chelsea Conrad), with LaVelda Fann and five other children from a previous marriage.
On "The Wild Wild West" (1965), did most of his own stunt work, resulting in several injuries during the course of the show. During one episode's shooting, he slipped while performing a stunt and fell head first onto a concrete floor 12 feet below. Seriously injured, his recuperation delayed the series' production for nearly three months.
Once was a bandsinger and made the rounds of Chicago's major hotels with bandleaders Johnny Gilbert, Jim Redd, and a jazz trio.
Played the drums and the trumpet
Speaks Spanish.
Tested for the role of Maj. Anthony Nelson on "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965).
Three veterans of "The Wild Wild West" (1965), stuntman Whitey Hughes, makeup artist Ken Chase and actor Richard Kiel, reminisce about the series and star Conrad in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland, 2010) by Tom Weaver.
Was a star football and basketball player in middle school and high school.
Was born in Canaryville, a section of Chicago populated mainly by Irish immigrants.
Was offered the role of Hannibal Smith on "The A-Team" (1983), but turned it down because he preferred to produce his own projects.
When he eloped, he and his wife lived under the assumed name "Robert Conrad" so their parents wouldn't find them. They only told their parents where they were in May of 1952 when his wife found out she was having a baby. They were thrilled because they figured it would be too late for their parents to annul the marriage.
When the 1999 movie remake of "The Wild Wild West" (1965) swept the 20th Annual Razzie Awards, "winning" 5 statuettes (including Worst Picture) Conrad, who played James West in the original 1960s TV series, accepted 3 of the awards in person as his way of expressing his low opinion of what had been done with his source material.
Worked as a milkman in Chicago.