Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Went From Acting To Religion: A Look Back 10 Years After His Tragic Death

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It's been ten years since actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. died after a long life and productive career. Best known for two of TV's most popular crime dramas, The F.B.I. (ABC, 1965-1974) 77 Sunset Strip (ABC, 1958-1964), Zimbalist died at 95. This is his story.

A Closer Look

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was born on Nov. 30, 1918, in New York the son of Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor, and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

His father was friends with poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and he received violin lessons from the father of Jascha Heifetz. He later studied at the Yale Drama School and the Neighborhood Playhouse, then served in World War II and earned a Purple Heart.

The Stage Was Set After the War

During World War II, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. served in the U.S. Army and was injured in the battle of Hurtgen Forest in 1941.

Like many showbizness professionals before and after him, Zimbalist began his career as an NBC Page.

After that prestigious internship, Zimbalist began performing on stage in shows like the 1945 Broadway production of The Rugged Path, which starred As a producer, Zimbalist also found work behind the scenes

Zimbalist’s elegant baritone and good looks led to other key performances in plays like Henry VIII in 1946 and Hedda Gabler in 1948.

As a producer, Zimbalist also found work behind the scenes, bringing opera to Broadway with productions like The Medium, The Telephone, and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Consul.

Then Came Hollywood

In 1949, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. made his big-screen debut co-starring in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s House of Strangers, which starred Edward G. Robinson.

After his wife Emily died of cancer, however, he quit acting. For the next few years, he worked for his father at the Curtis School of Music.

In 1954, Zimbalist returned to his artistic craft with a leading role in a daytime TV drama and subsequently signed a seven-year movie contract with Warner Bros.

He was soon back on the big screen in films like Band of Angels (1957), Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and Home Before Dark (1958), the latter of which was his favorite.

In 1961, he starred with Angie Dickinson in the courtroom thriller A Fever in the Blood. That was followed one year later by The Chapman Report, a controversial film in which he played the head of a medical research clinic that studied the sex habits of suburban women.

The F.B.I.

However, it was on television where Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. found his true claim to mainstream fame.

A close friend of then-FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, Zimbalist appeared on all 241 episodes of The F.B.I., which was based on real-life cases.

After that monumental series ended, Zimbalist acted periodically, as when in 1991 he satirized his image in Jim Abrahams’ big-screen Top Gun spoof Hot Shots!

The Religious Aspect

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. was the son of Efrem Zimbalist by Alma Gluck but was not of the Jewish faith. His parents had converted to Anglican Christianity and regularly attended the Episcopal Church.

In the late 1970s, Zimbalist, Jr. was drawn to the Charismatic Christianity movement and was initially associated with Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry.

For years, Zimbalist was a member of the PTL board the subsequent Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) engaged him for five-minute TV announcements from 1992 to 2012.

Zimbalist later joined the congregation of an Episcopal parish near to his home, and then the Anglican Church of Our Savior in Santa Barbara. He was an occasional reader there and requested donations to be made to them (among others) in his obituary.

In the End

In 2014, Efrem Zimbalist III said his father had been outside watering his lawn at his ranch in Solvang, CA when a handyman found him lying dead in the grass.

Besides his son, the actor left behind his daughter, actress Stephanie Zimbalist (best known for a hit TV series of her own: Remington Steele, NBC, 1982-1987), four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.