Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsequently acquired the rights and featured Kildare as the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

[7][8] The author Frederick Schiller Faust, writing as Max Brand, created the character of Dr. James Kildare as a fictionalized version of his college friend, Dr. George Winthrop "Dixie" Fish, a New York surgeon.

[11] In these early stories, Dr. James "Jimmy" Kildare is an aspiring surgeon who leaves his parents' farm to practice at a fictional big-city hospital, and through his work, comes into contact with underworld criminals.

[12] The first Kildare film, Internes Can't Take Money (1937), based on the short story of the same title and made by Paramount, followed this version of the character.

During this time, Faust wrote several original Kildare stories which were first published in magazines, later republished in novel form, and made into films by MGM.

[19] Due to the continuing popularity of the characters in film, radio and television series, many reprints, different formats, and different versions of the original Kildare books have since been released.

[1][14] MGM had noted the popularity of the Kildare character in pulp magazines and, following the release of Internes Can't Take Money, saw an opportunity to obtain an undervalued property and develop a successful film series.

[1][20][15] In 1942, during the making of the tenth film in the MGM series, originally titled Born to Be Bad, Ayres was drafted to serve in WWII and declared himself a conscientious objector.

MGM made several more films featuring the Dr. Gillespie character mentoring various young doctors played by Van Johnson (as Dr. Randall "Red" Adams), Keye Luke (as Dr. Lee Wong How), and James Craig (as Dr. Tommy Coalt).

[39] The single Paramount Kildare film, Internes Can't Take Money, was released on DVD by Universal as part of "The Barbara Stanwyck Collection" in April 2010.

[43] Episodes were scripted by James Moser, Jean Holloway, Les Crutchfield, E. Jack Neuman, John Michael Hayes, Joel Murcott, and others.

In addition, many prominent West Coast radio actors made recurring appearances, including Raymond Burr, William Conrad, Stacy Harris, Lurene Tuttle, Barton Yarborough, and Jack Webb.

[44][45] The medical information presented was up to date for its time, and sometimes taken from real life; for example, an episode in which Dr. Kildare is forced to perform an emergency appendectomy on himself was based on a news story.

The earliest known broadcast of the program took place on September 27, 1949, on Mutual station WGN in Chicago, prior to the WMGM premiere episode on October 12, 1949.

[52][53] The first two seasons told the story of Dr. James Kildare (Richard Chamberlain), working in a fictional large metropolitan hospital while trying to learn his profession, deal with his patients' problems, and earn the respect of the senior Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Raymond Massey).

1337 in Dell's Four Color Comics line, and featured a story involving a gambler checking into Dr. Kildare's hospital to hide from a hit man.

[60][61][63] A Dr. Kildare daily comic strip based on the 1960s television series, distributed by King Features Syndicate, and drawn by Ken Bald also premiered on October 15, 1962.