Robert Bray
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| Robert Bray | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert E. Bray October 23, 1917 Kalispell, Montana, USA |
| Died | March 7, 1983 (aged 65) Bishop, California, USA |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse(s) | Joan Loretta Bray (born 1930)[1] |
Robert E. Bray (October 23, 1917 – March 7, 1983) was a film and television actor probably best remembered for his role as the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the long-running CBS series Lassie.
Bray was born to homesteading parents in Kalispell, the seat of Flathead County in northwestern Montana. The family moved to Seattle, where Bray attended Lincoln High School. After graduation, he was for a time a lumberjack, a cowboy, and a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1942, Bray joined the United States Marine Corps and saw action in the South Pacific during World War II. He finished the war at the rank of master sergeant and then aspired to become a taxidermist or the owner of a hunting/fishing lodge.[2]
Instead, Bray entered film in 1946 under contract to RKO. He was marketed as the "next Gary Cooper". In the 1950s, the then freelancing actor appeared in a varied number of roles including Carl the Bus Driver in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe (1956) and as detective Mike Hammer in My Gun Is Quick (1957).
In the 1960-1961 television season, Bray played Simon Kane, along with Wayne Rogers as Luke Perry and Richard Eyer as David "Davey" Kane, Simon's son, in the ABC series Stagecoach West, a production of Dick Powell's Four Star Television. Bray and Rogers portrayed the co-owners of the Timberland Stage Line which carried passengers from Missouri to San Francisco during the 1860s.[3]
He starred between 1960 and 1963 in three episodes of NBC's Western Laramie. He appeared in three episodes of CBS's Perry Mason, including the 1963 segment in which he portrayed wealthy murder victim Martin Walden (Episode 180, "The Case of the Potted Planter"). He also guest starred on NBC's short-lived Temple Houston, Riverboat with Darren McGavin, and The Loretta Young Show. He appeared between 1958 and 1961 in four episodes of CBS's suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Other Bray appearances were in ABC's Maverick and Sugarfoot, and NBC's Overland Trail.[4]
In 1958, Bray was offered a supporting role in director Joshua Logan's South Pacific, but he decided to star in low-budget films for Allied Artists. It was a strategic error in his career, for South Pacific became a smash success.[5]
In 1964, Bray won the role of Corey Stuart in Lassie because of his affinity for animals and their reciprocity toward him. That same year, Lassie went to color film. Stuart, the plot develops, acquired Lassie after the former owner, the Martins (played by Hugh Reilly, June Lockhart, and Jon Provost), moved to Australia. Lassie's farm life then grew more exciting with rescues and adventures in the national forest setting. On three episodes, Bray appeared with the former child actor Bobby Diamond of NBC's Fury. Bray was replaced in 1968 by two younger rangers. The storyline attributes the end of Bray's role to injuries that the character sustained while fighting a forest fire.[6]
Bray and his wife, Joan (born 1930), then retired to Bishop in Inyo County in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California. He was often seen in his Winnebago in Bishop with his dog "Lady". Bray was a fly fisherman, hunter, model duck carver, and all-around sportsman.[7]
He spent his last years in the High Sierras where he had made many of his early Western films. After his death of a heart attack, Bray's ashes were scattered over Zuma Beach in Malibu, California, where he had spent many pleasant days as a young man.[8]
