LOS ANGELES, Jan 20: Actor Richard Crenna, who broke into the entertainment business as a squeaky-voiced adolescent on a radio comedy and inspired tough guys as an adult, playing Sylvester Stallone’s former commander in the “Rambo” movies, has died, his family said on Monday. He was 76.

Crenna, whose six-decade career spanned drama and comedy in radio, television and the movies, died at a hospital near Beverly Jills on Friday of heart failure that was a complication of pancreatic cancer.

The Los Angeles native made a name for himself playing adolescent Walter Denton on the radio series “Our Miss Brooks”. When the radio show moved to television, Crenna moved with it.

“He loved the camaraderie of a crew. He loved the creative process. He’s been working in it pretty much from the beginning,” said his son, actor Richard Anthony Crenna.

Action movie fans probably know him best for his role as Col. Trautman in the three Rambo movies, “First Blood,” (1982) “Rambo: First Blood II” (1985) and “Rambo III” (1988). He brought his comic sense to bear by parodying his tough-guy “Rambo” role in the 1993 spoof “Hot Shots! Part Deux.”

—Reuters