Robert Gillespie (born 9 November 1933 in Lille, France) is a British actor.
He was brought up in Nantes until his parents moved to Manchester, having arrived in Plymouth in 1940. He trained as an actor at RADA in the 1950s and upon leaving RADA worked with notable stage actors including Richard Burton and John Gielgud.
He also was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for two years in the mid-1990s but is perhaps best known for his role as Dudley Rush in the television sitcom Keep It in the Family, specifically written for him by Brian Cooke.
Other notable TV credits include: The Saint, The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green, Up Pompeii!, Z-Cars, The Onedin Line, Doomwatch, Dad's Army, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, Porridge, The Sweeney, Public Eye, The Good Life, Rising Damp, The New Avengers, Survivors, Warship, Robin's Nest, The Professionals, George and Mildred, I Woke Up One Morning, Return of the Saint, Bonjour La Classe, Secret Army and Butterflies.
Film appearances include the Pride segment of The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971); The National Health (1973), Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974), Force Ten From Navarone (1978), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), and Royal Shakespeare Company production's of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1994-96 and 2001.[1]
Since the mid-1990s he has largely devoted himself to directing theatre and created his own production company, Jane Nightwork Productions, in 2000. Productions have included David Mamet's Oleanna, Jeremy Kingston's Making Dickie Happy and Eugene Scribe's Golden Opportunities, translated by former Times Arts Editor Anthony Curtis, which received its UK premiere at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon in September 2006. In May 2008 he directed a reading of Chains by Eugene Scribe at the Trafalgar Studios.
On 6 April 2010, Gillespie's new production, Love, Question Mark opened at the New Diorama Theatre for a 4 week run. Love, Question Mark is the first part of a trilogy entitled, Power of Three: Love, War and Death. The play starred Clare Cameron and Stuart Sessions and was produced by Lucy Jackson.