Who Is Still Alive From ‘Have Gun – Will Travel’?

HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL, Richard Boone, 1957-63. — Everett Collection

Television viewers had plenty of Westerns to choose from in 1957, but Have Gun – Will Travel offered a different kind of gunfighter. Richard Boone‘s Paladin lived comfortably at San Francisco’s Hotel Carlton, dressed in expensive clothes and often enjoying the finer things in life. However, when one of his clients needed help, he was always willing to travel anywhere and face almost any danger.

The CBS series premiered on September 14, 1957, and ran for six seasons and 225 episodes before ending on April 20, 1963. It became one of television’s most popular Westerns, ranking among the top four shows during each of its first four seasons. The show had a small principal cast: Boone, Kam Tong as Hey Boy, and Lisa Lu as Hey Girl. Nearly 70 years after its premiere, Lu is the only one still alive.

Lisa Lu (99), Hey Girl

Everett Collection; Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures/Everett Collection

Lu had already appeared on Have Gun – Will Travel before she became Hey Girl. In the 1958 episode “Hey Boy’s Revenge,” she played Kim Li, the sister of Kam Tong’s character. When Tong temporarily left the series during its fourth season to appear on the CBS adventure series Mr. Garlund, Lu returned as Hey Girl. Like Hey Boy, she worked at the Hotel Carlton and often brought Paladin the messages that sent him on his next assignment. Hey Girl was not in every episode, but Lu became a familiar face to viewers during the 1960-61 season. Tong later returned to the series as Hey Boy.

Lu went on to have a career that lasted more than seven decades. She appeared opposite James Stewart in the 1960 war film The Mountain Road and later had memorable roles in The Last Emperor, The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians. She also won three Golden Horse Awards for her work in Chinese-language films. Her more recent credits include the Disney+ series American Born Chinese and the Hulu mystery series Death and Other Details. In 2025, the documentary Lisa Lu Plays Herself explored her life and career. Lu was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 5, 2025. At 98, she became the oldest person ever to receive a star.

How Hal Needham inspired Cliff Booth

THE WORLD STUNT AWARDS, Hal Needham accepting the First Lifetime Achievement Award, (airing 06/16/01), 2001

Everett Collection

One of the most important people working behind the scenes on Have Gun – Will Travel was stuntman Hal Needham. Needham served as Richard Boone’s stunt double and helped handle the series’ dangerous fights and falls. He also appeared on camera in numerous small roles, usually playing outlaws, gunmen or other characters involved in the action.

According to the Television Academy, Have Gun – Will Travel was one of the early television Westerns that helped Needham establish himself as one of Hollywood’s leading stunt performers. Needham later became Burt Reynolds‘ longtime stunt double and close friend. He eventually moved into directing and made several of Reynolds’ best-known movies, including Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and The Cannonball Run.

That friendship also helped inspire Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Brad Pitt‘s stuntman character, Cliff Booth, was influenced by several real stunt performers, including Needham. More specifically, Needham’s close relationship with Reynolds helped inspire the partnership between Cliff and Leonardo DiCaprio‘s fading television star, Rick Dalton. Pitt is returning as Cliff in The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a new movie written by Tarantino and directed by David Fincher. Set in 1977, the film will begin an exclusive two-week IMAX run on November 25, 2026, before arriving to Netflix this December.