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Robert Young
Age: 91 (passed away Jul. 21st, 1998)
Height: 6'
Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Born: Feb. 22nd, 1907
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Robert Young's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Quiet, soft-spoken Robert grew up in California and had some stage experience with the Pasadena Playhouse before entering films in 1931. His movie career consisted of playing characters who were charming, good-looking--and bland. In fact, his screen image was such that he usually never got the girl. Louis B. Mayer would say, "He has no sex appeal," but he had a work ethic that prepared him for every role that he played. And he did play in as many as eleven films per year for a decade starting with The Black Camel (1931). He was notable as the spy in Alfred Hitchcock (I)'s Secret Agent (1936), but the '40s was the decade in which he was to have most of his best roles. These included 'Northwest Passage' (Book I -- Rogers' Rangers) (1940); Western Union (1941); and H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941). Good roles followed, from the husband of Dorothy McGuire (I)in Claudia (1943) to the detective in Crossfire (1947), but they were becoming scarce. In 1949, Robert started a radio show called "Father Knows Best" wherein he played Jim Anderson, an average father with average situations--a role which was tailor-made for him. Basically retiring from films, he starred in this program for five years on radio before it went to television in 1954. After a slight falter in the ratings and a switch from CBS to NBC, it became a mainstay of television until it was canceled in 1960. He continued making guest appearances on various television shows and working in television movies. In 1969, he starred as Dr. Marcus Welby in the TV movie Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) (TV). The Marcus Welby series that followed ran from 1969 through 1976 and featured James Brolin as his assistant, Dr. Steven Kiley--the doc with the bike. After the series ended, Robert, now in his seventies, finally licked his 30-year battle with alcohol and occasionally appeared in television movies through the 1980s.
TRIVIA:
- Living in Los Angeles by the age of 10, he attended Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, where he met his future wife Elizabeth. It was she who prodded the shy guy into trying acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse after graduation.
- In later years, Robert and Elizabeth lived in a house in Westlake Village, California called "The Enchanted Cottage," named after the 1945 film in which he starred with 'Dorothy McGuire (I)' (qv).
- MGM talent agents spotted him in a 1931 touring stage production of "The Ship" and signed him up.
- His patented shyness and painful insecurity turned his social drinking into a chronic alcohol problem during his MGM years that lasted nearly three decades. He recovered with the aid and encouragement of his wife Elizabeth and through spiritual metaphysics (Science of Mind), not to mention Alcoholics Anonymous. He often held AA meetings in his home.
- Was employed as a bank clerk and a reporter during his fledgling actor days and even found extra work in Keystone Cops movies.
- He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard; for Radio at 1620 Vine Street; and for Television at 6360 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- Was a favorite co-star among Tinseltown's biggest female stars, including 'Margaret Sullavan' (qv), 'Joan Crawford (I)' (qv), 'Janet Gaynor (I)' (qv), 'Loretta Young' (qv), 'Norma Shearer' (qv) 'Katharine Hepburn' (qv) and 'Claudette Colbert' (qv), primarily because his acting was always reliable, complimentary and professional...plus the fact that he never tried to steal the spotlight.
- Was the fourth of five children born to Thomas and Margaret (Fyfe) Young. His family moved from his native Chicago to Seattle, Washington, when he was less than a year old.
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