Richard Kimble

This article is about the fictional character. For the politician, see Richard Kimball.

Dr. Richard David Kimble is the primary protagonist who featured in the popular television series The Fugitive. He is portrayed by actor David Janssen. Dr. Kimble, who according to his wanted poster was born on March 27, 1927 in Stafford, Indiana, is a doctor falsely convicted for the murder of his wife, Helen Kimble, but freed in a train wreck en route to execution. He spends the series searching for the one-armed man, Fred Johnson, who is the real killer, while pursued by the relentless police detective, Lt. Philip Gerard, from whom he escaped. This style of show (traveling from town-to-town and the constant changing of identities/names) 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.

Before his conviction, Dr. Kimble was a pediatrician in Stafford, and before that, served as a Medic in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Dialogue in the episode "The Savage Street" establishes that Kimble had originally wanted to be a pro-baseball player, but was pressured by his father into becoming a doctor. Dr. Kimble met his wife, who was a Registered Nurse, while he was obtaining his Internship. Helen Kimble grew up and lived in Fairgreen, Indiana (her maiden name was Helen Waverly).

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 of the original series.