Robert Douglas (actor)

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Robert Douglas (actor) bigraphy, stories - Actor, director

Robert Douglas (actor) : biography

9 November 1909 – 11 January 1999

Robert Douglas (9 November 1909 – 11 January 1999) was born as Robert Douglas Finlayson in Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He was a successful stage and film actor, a television director and producer.

He studied at RADA and made his screen debut at Bournemouth in 1927. A year later he made his first appearance on stage in Many Waters at the Ambassadors Theatre and went into films the following year. He was gently mannered with a well modulated speaking voice, who delivered his lines in clipped fashion. He could portray the sinister, conniving rogue as easily as the forthright military officer.

He was married twice, including the actress Dorothy Hyson (1914–1996) and Suzanne Weldon (1921–1995), fathering two children, Lucinda and Robert (Giles). He died from natural causes in Leucadia, Encinitas, California, aged 89. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

As a Director

  • 1962: The Final Hour
  • 1964: Night Train to Paris

Filmography

As an actor

Film

  • 1930 : PC. Josser with Milton Rosmer
  • 1931 : Many Waters with Milton Rosmer
  • 1933 : The Blarney Stone (US): The Blarney Kiss with Tom Walls
  • 1935 : Death Drives Through with Edward L. Cahn
  • 1937 : Our Fighting Navy (US): Torpedoed with Norman Walker
  • 1937 : London Melody (US): Girl in the Street with Herbert Wilcox
  • 1938 : The Challenge with Milton Rosmer
  • 1939 : Over the Moon with Thornton Freeland
  • 1939 : The Lion Has Wings with Michael Powell
  • 1940 : Chinese Bungalow (US): Chinese Den with George King
  • 1947 : The End of the River with Derek N. Twist
  • 1948 : The Decision of Christopher Blake with Peter Godfrey
  • 1948 : The Adventures of Don Juan with Vincent Sherman
  • 1949 : The Fountainhead with King Vidor
  • 1949 : The Lady Takes a Sailor with Michael Curtiz
  • 1949 : Homicide with Felix Jacoves
  • 1950 : Buccaneer’s Girl with Frederick De Cordova
  • 1950 : The Flame and the Arrow with Jacques Tourneur
  • 1950 : Kim with Victor Saville
  • 1950 : Spy Hunt with George Sherman
  • 1950 : Mystery Submarine with Douglas Sirk
  • 1950 : Barricade with Peter Godfrey
  • 1950 : This Side of the Law with Richard L Bare
  • 1951 : Target Unknown with George Sherman
  • 1951 : Thunder on the Hill (GB): Bonaventure with Douglas Sirk
  • 1951 : At Sword’s Point (GB): Sons of the Musketeers with Lewis Allen
  • 1952 : Ivanhoe with Richard Thorpe
  • 1952 : The Prisoner of Zenda with Richard Thorpe
  • 1953 : The Desert Rats with Robert Wise
  • 1953 : Flight to Tangier with Charles Marquis Warren
  • 1953 : Fair Wind to Java with Joseph Kane
  • 1954 : King Richard and the Crusaders with David Butler
  • 1954 : Saskatchewan (GB): O’Rourke of the Royal Mounted with Raoul Walsh
  • 1955 : The Scarlet Coat with John Sturges
  • 1955 : Good Morning Miss Dove with Henry Koster
  • 1956 : Helen of Troy with Robert Wise
  • 1959 : The Young Philadelphians (GB): The City Jungle with Vincent Sherman
  • 1959 : Tarzan the Apeman with Joseph M Newman
  • 1960 : The Lawbreakers with Joseph M Newman

Television

As an actor

  • 1959: Arthur with Alfred Hitchcock
  • 1959-1961: One Step Beyond (episode The Secret)
  • 1960: Thriller: The Specialists with Ted Post
  • 1972: The Woman I Love with Paul Wendkos
  • 1974: The Questor Tapes
  • 1975: Columbo (Season 4, Episode 4 – Trouble Waters)

As a screenwriter

Film

  • 1964 : Night Train to Paris

Theatre

As a Director

  • 1956 (in Broadway) : Affair of Honor, The Loud Red Patrick (co-producer), The Ponder Heart, Uncle Willie (from 1957)

Television

As a Director

  • 1955: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and producer)
  • 1957: Maverick
  • 1958: 77 Sunset Strip
  • 1959: Hawaiian Eye
  • 1960: Surfside 6
  • 1960: The Roaring Twenties
  • 1962: The Virginian
  • 1962-1965: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
  • 1963: The Fugitive (one episode)
  • 1965: The FBI
  • 1965: Lost in Space
  • 1966: Mission: Impossible (episode The Diamond)
  • 1967-1968: The Invaders (season 2 and – episode 18: Counterattack and The Prophet)
  • 1969: Medical Center
  • 1970: The Men from Shiloh
  • 1970: Dan August
  • 1970: The Immortal
  • 1971: Cannon
  • 1972: The Streets of San Francisco
  • 1973: Barnaby Jones
  • 1974: Shazam!
  • 1975: Baretta
  • 1976: City of Angels
  • 1976: Columbo (season 6, Episode 2 – Old Fashioned Murder)
  • 1976: Quincy, M.E.
  • 1977: Future Cop
  • 1977: Hunter
  • 1977: The Man from Atlantis
  • 1977: Big Hawaii
  • 1979: Trapper John, M.D.
  • 1979: House Calls
  • 1980: Nobody’s Perfect
  • 1982: Fame (one episode)

Film