Roy Roberts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other Roy Roberts with the same name, see Roy Roberts (disambiguation).
Roy Roberts (March 19, 1900 - May 28, 1975) was an American character actor.
Born Roy Barnes Jones in Tampa, Florida, he began his acting career on the stage, first appearing on Broadway in May of 1931 before making his motion picture debut in 1943's "Guadalcanal Diary." He appeared in numerous films in secondary parts and returned to perform on Broadway in such productions as Twentieth Century, My Sister Eileen, and Carnival in Flanders until he began making guest appearances on television series. After appearing on Gale Storm's popular show, My Little Margie in 1956, he became part of several television series for which he is best remembered. In a show that was the precursor to the Love Boat, Roberts played the ship's captain for four years in Ms. Storm's next hit, Oh! Susanna.
During the mid-1960s, Roberts was one of the most recognizable faces on television, and had recurring roles concurrently on a number of popular programs, including:
- Bank president Mr. Cheever on The Lucy Show
- John Cushing, president of the rival Merchant's Bank on The Beverly Hillbillies
- Railroad president Norman Curtis on Petticoat Junction
- Darrin's father Frank Stephens on Bewitched
- Banker Harry Bodkin on Gunsmoke
- Admiral Rogers on McHale's Navy
In the 1940s and 1950s Roberts was a regular in many films noir, including Force of Evil (1948), He Walked by Night (1948), Nightmare Alley (1947), The Brasher Doubloon (1947), Borderline (1950) and The Enforcer (1951). He also appeared in the 1970s neo-noirs The Outfit (1973) and Chinatown (1974).
Over his more than forty year career, Roy Roberts did more than nine hundred performances. He died in 1975 in Los Angeles, California of a heart attack and was interred in Greenwood Memorial Park cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas.
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