Beef. It's not just a type of red meat. In some contexts, "beef" is a fun synonym for a gripe, or even a rivalry or dislike between two parties. In this way, dear reader, Jack Lord, of Hawaii Five-O fame, had some serious beef with Richard Boone.

Boone was, of course, the star of Have Gun — Will Travel for six seasons. Across its 200+ episodes, Boone played the show's main character, Paladin, a bounty hunter who had a gun and also traveled. Several years after that hit Western came to an end, though, he found himself back in the crosshairs, this time under fire from a fellow television actor.

Jack Lord, by 1970, was finally top-billed in a hot series. This came after a series of near-misses that threatened to keep the 50-year-old out of the limelight for good. He'd come very close to starring as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, but according to that show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, Lord asked to own 50% of the show. Space, the final frontier, was too valuable to split down the middle, so Roddenberry let Lord walk. This came a few years after Lord had similarly been turned down as the lead in The Untouchables, but whether it was his own financial folly that cost him that role is unknown. Interestingly, Lord guest-starred in the first episode of Have Gun — Will Travel as well.

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So, by the time he landed Five-O, Lord had a chip on his shoulder. He went from perennial guest star to the face on the poster. It was his time to shine, and he wasn't going to let anybody cloud his moment. 

In an interview with Hackensack, New Jersey's The Record, Lord cleared the air about claims of his outsized ego, all before proving his vanity knew no bounds.

"Richard Boone is a loser. He's got a lot of gall in his gut. He had a series with a Hawaii Setting (Kona Coast) in contention and lost out. He can't take it."

Lord didn't work again after Hawaii Five-O ended in '79. His final project was a failed pilot titled M Station: Hawaii, which he also directed.