Robert Walker (actor)


Robert Walker

from the trailer for the film Strangers on a Train (1951)
Born Robert Hudson Walker
October 13, 1918(1918-10-13)
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Died August 28, 1951 (aged 32)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Years active 1939 - 1952
Spouse(s) Jennifer Jones (January 2, 1939 - June 20, 1945)
Barbara Ford (July 8, 1948 - December 16, 1948)
Hanna Landy (27 July 1949 - 28 August 1951)

Robert Hudson Walker (October 13, 1918 – August 28, 1951) was an American actor.

Contents

Early life

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Zella (née McQuarrie) and Horace Walker, he was the youngest of four sons. Emotionally scarred by his parents' divorce when he was still a child, he subsequently developed an interest in acting which led to his maternal aunt Hortense (McQuarrie) Odlum (the president of Bonwit Teller) to offer to pay for his enrollment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1937. Walker lived in her home during his first year in the city.

Career and personal life

While attending the AADA, Walker met fellow aspiring actress Phylis Isley, later to be known as Jennifer Jones. After a brief courtship, the two were married in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 2, 1939 and moved to Hollywood to find work in films but their prospects proved to be meager and they soon returned to New York. Walker soon found work in radio while Phylis stayed home and gave birth to two sons in quick succession, actor Robert Walker, Jr., born April 15, 1940, and Michael Walker, born March 13, 1941. Phylis then returned to auditioning where her luck changed when she was discovered in 1941 by producer David O. Selznick, who changed her name to Jennifer Jones and groomed her for stardom. During their initial meetings Selznick was highly attracted to Jones and they quietly began an affair. She eventually landed the plum role of Bernadette Soubirous in the Twentieth Century Fox production The Song of Bernadette (1943).

The couple returned to Hollywood, and Selznick's connections helped Walker secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he started work on the war drama Bataan (1943). Walker's charming demeanor and boyish good looks caught on with audiences, and he worked steadily playing "boy-next-door" roles in films such as See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945). He also appeared in Selznick's Since You Went Away (1944) in which he and his wife gave poignant performances as doomed young lovers. By that time Selznick and Jones' affair was common knowledge, and Jones and Walker separated in November 1943, in the midst of production.[1] The filming of their love scenes was torturous as Selznick insisted that Walker perform take after take of each love scene with Jones.

Jones filed for divorce in April 1945, and the year 1945 also saw Walker star in the film The Clock opposite Judy Garland in her first straight dramatic film that proved to be a critical success. Although Walker continued to work steadily in Hollywood, he was distraught over the divorce and was soon prone to drinking, emotional outbursts and eventually, a nervous breakdown. He spent time at the Menninger Clinic in 1949 where he was treated for a psychiatric disorder.[2]

In 1946, Walker starred in Till the Clouds Roll By, where he played the lead as the song writer Jerome Kern in a role that required him to age from a young man to a middle-aged one. He starred as composer Johannes Brahms in Song of Love (1947), which co-starred Katharine Hepburn and Paul Henreid. In 1948, Walker starred with Ava Gardner in the film One Touch of Venus, directed by William A. Seiter. The movie was a non-musical comedy adapted from a Broadway show with music by Kurt Weill.

Following his dismissal from the Menninger Clinic, he was hired by director Alfred Hitchcock for Strangers on a Train (1951). His performance as the evil yet oddly sympathetic Bruno Anthony was highly lauded and considered to be his finest role. His emotional problems largely behind him, and his career in an upswing following an acclaimed performance, Walker spent the summer with his sons, and was considering the possibility of remarrying (He had married Barbara Ford, the daughter of director John Ford, in July 1948, but the marriage only lasted five months).[3]

Death

According to the book Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies, while filming My Son John, on the night of August 28, 1951, Walker's housekeeper found him in another emotional outburst. Failing to calm him down, she called his psychiatrist, who, upon arrival administered sodium amytal. Walker suffered an acute allergic reaction to the drug, and stopped breathing. All efforts to resuscitate him failed. Walker was just 32 years old.[4]

Walker was buried at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.[5]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1939 Winter Carnival Wes Uncredited
These Glamour Girls College Boy Uncredited
Dancing Co-Ed Boy Uncredited
Alternative title: Every Other Inch a Lady
1943 Bataan Leonard Purckett
Madame Curie David Le Gros
1944 See Here, Private Hargrove Private Marion Hargrove
Since You Went Away Corporal William G. "Bill" Smollett II
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo David Thatcher (Crew of the Ruptured Duck)
1945 The Clock Corporal Joe Allen Alternative title: Under the Clock
Her Highness and the Bellboy Jimmy Dobson
What Next, Corporal Hargrove? Corporal Marion Hargrove
The Sailor Takes a Wife John Hill
1946 Till the Clouds Roll By Jerome Kern
1947 The Beginning or the End Colonel Jeff Nixon
The Sea of Grass Brock Brewton
Song of Love Johannes Brahms
1948 One Touch of Venus Eddie Hatch
1950 Please Believe Me Terence Keath
The Skipper Surprised His Wife Commander William J. Lattimer
1951 Vengeance Valley Lee Strobie
Strangers on a Train Bruno Anthony
1952 My Son John John Jefferson

Bibliography

  • Beverly Linet, Star Crossed: The Story of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985) ISBN 0-399-13194-9

References

  1. ^ "Jennifer Jones Sues To Divorce Actor Walker", The Washington Post, April 22, 1945, p. M4.
  2. ^ Beverly Linet, Star Crossed: The Story of Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985) ISBN 0-399-13194-9
  3. ^ "Robert Walker's Wife Is Granted Divorce", The Washington Post, December 17, 1948, p. 26.
  4. ^ Brettell, Andrew; Imwold, Denis; Kennedy, Damien; King, Noel (2005). Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies. Leonard, Warren Hsu; von Rohr, Heather. Barrons Educational Series. pp. 253. ISBN 0-764-15858-9. 
  5. ^ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2102

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Walker








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