Robert Young: Let's Get Bob
“I was an introvert in an extrovert profession.”
This is nothing like the crush I had on Alan Ladd last month but having explored more of Robert Young's filmography this month, I really started to like him, so here's a post dedicated to him.
Some Hollywood actors are a dime a dozen and Robert Young is one of them. At first nothing special, pretty unremarkable and even bland.
Some Hollywood actors are a dime a dozen and Robert Young is one of them. At first nothing special, pretty unremarkable and even bland.
Then, this month, I saw him in the noir Crossfire. The role was initially given to Dick Powell but he had other engagements. Young accepted the part and it turned out to be one of his best performances. I was impressed and liked him a lot in this serious dramatic role. I also found him kind of attractive here. I immediately set out to see more of his films and to read up on him a bit. I looked at his filmography, and though Crossfire might be the best performance he gave, there are still other rewarding roles he played and worth exploring (H.M. Pulham, Esq., Secret Agent, They Won't Believe Me and The Second Woman). I basically wanted to spend some more time with him and also wouldn't mind seeing him in more 1930s fluff.
But first let's get acquainted.
Robert Young (22 February 1907 – 21 July 1998), born in Chicago, grew up in California and got into acting at a young age. While attending high school, he met his future wife Elizabeth 'Betty' Henderson. She was the one who encouraged him to study and perform at the Pasadena Playhouse after graduation. Meanwhile he worked several odd jobs and appeared in bit parts in silent films. He was discovered by a MGM talent scout while touring with a stock company and got signed to a contract. He made his film debut in the Charlie Chan film Black Camel (1931). While under contract to MGM, he was obligated to take all roles offered to him in order to avoid being placed on suspension.
I read an excerpt from the book The Making of The Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz, and it says that MGM had two lists of contract players: the list with the Stars/Leads and the one with the Featured Players. By 1938, the list of Stars included names like Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer. Among the Featured Players were Melvyn Douglas, Judy Garland, James Stewart and Robert Young. Some of the more handsome Featured Players could be Leads too, also Young was considered for this. If the studio couldn't get the big stars, they would say "Let's get Bob", meaning Young.
Young was a dependable actor, a hard worker, and for a decade he played in as many as nine films per year. His characters were charming but mostly bland. Louis B. Mayer had said about Young, "He has no sex-appeal", yet the studio could count on him to deliver a solid performance in any role they gave him. It was also said that many of the top actresses Young worked with preferred him to be their co-star (Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, Claudette Colbert and Katharine Hepburn) because they knew he would be professional, reliable, and what's more important, he would never upstage them. MGM released him from his contract in the early 1940s and Young felt relieved to be a free agent now. Even though he had shown an admirable work ethic, MGM had often treated him poorly. After MGM, he starred in comedies and dramas for studios such as 20th Century-Fox, United Artists, and RKO. His strongest film work came in the forties with more challenging leading roles in Claudia, The Enchanted Cottage, They Won't Believe Me, The Second Woman and Crossfire.
During his career he had worked steadily for film (between 1931 and 1952 he played in over 100 films), television and radio. In 1949, disillusioned with his undistinguished film career, he ventured into radio and starred in a family comedy as an amiable insurance salesman in Father Knows Best. The show ran successfully for five years (1949 – 1954) before becoming a hit on television (1954 – 1960). The recognition Young never got during his film career, he received for his television work: he was nominated for an Emmy Award four times and won twice. During most of the 1960s Young disappeared from television to reappear again in 1969 for another hit series Marcus Welby, M.D. (after a pilot film) playing a general practitioner. The show ran for the next seven years, earning him a third Emmy Award. Both television roles were tailor-made for him.
Young was dealing with depression since 1946 and like many other Hollywood actors he also suffered from chronic alcoholism. This was brought on by a lack of confidence and a bitterness toward Hollywood for their casting methods. His depression resulted in a suicide attempt in January 1991 at the age of 83. He attached a garden hose to the exhaust pipe of his car and intended to inhale the fumes. It turned out he'd been drinking. The attempt was unsuccessful and he was admitted voluntarily to a psychiatric hospital for observation. His wife Betty told the authorities that he had tried to form a suicide pact with her (she too suffered from depression). Some sources online mention that Young also suffered from Alzheimer's disease and heart problems, and if this is true, it could be that Alzheimer was a contributing factor to his suicide attempt.
Betty encouraged Bob to seek treatment for his depression and later he would speak openly about mental illness in order to encourage others to seek help. He also fought for the passage of a law to support mental health programs in his home state. The Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health in Rock Island, Illinois, is named after him. He finally died of respiratory failure in 1998. A private funeral service was attended by only his family and close friends. He was interred beside his wife Betty, whom he had met while both were students at Lincoln High (he was 17 and she was 14). They were married for over 60 years, from 1933 till Betty's death in 1994, and had four daughters.
It's a shame there's not a lot to find about Robert Young online. Just the usual small biographies to read on different websites, no biography or autobiography to find on Amazon, no documentary on YouTube. I found a book on Amazon called Hollywood Reliables by James Robert Parish, featuring six actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (Dana Andrews, Wallace Beery, Pat O'Brien, Walter Pidgeon, Spencer Tracy and Robert Young) who were considered reliable and could be counted on to give solid performances without outshining their co-stars. This book contains a detailed biography and filmography of every actor. I might order it since I also like the other actors (except for Wallace Beery).
What I did find on YouTube are two guest appearances on What's My Line? (here and here) so it was nice to see the off-screen Robert Young. He seems like a very kind and charming man. In one of the two guest appearances he is accompanied by Jane Wyatt, his co-star on Father Knows Best. She said about him, "Though we never socialised off the set, we were together every day for six years and during that time he never pulled rank and always treated his on-screen family with the same affection and courtesy he showed his loved ones in his private life."
It's a shame there's not a lot to find about Robert Young online. Just the usual small biographies to read on different websites, no biography or autobiography to find on Amazon, no documentary on YouTube. I found a book on Amazon called Hollywood Reliables by James Robert Parish, featuring six actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (Dana Andrews, Wallace Beery, Pat O'Brien, Walter Pidgeon, Spencer Tracy and Robert Young) who were considered reliable and could be counted on to give solid performances without outshining their co-stars. This book contains a detailed biography and filmography of every actor. I might order it since I also like the other actors (except for Wallace Beery).
What I did find on YouTube are two guest appearances on What's My Line? (here and here) so it was nice to see the off-screen Robert Young. He seems like a very kind and charming man. In one of the two guest appearances he is accompanied by Jane Wyatt, his co-star on Father Knows Best. She said about him, "Though we never socialised off the set, we were together every day for six years and during that time he never pulled rank and always treated his on-screen family with the same affection and courtesy he showed his loved ones in his private life."
Searching a little bit further on YT, I also found a radio interview with Young conducted by Australian media personality Bert Newton (here). I don't know the date when it was recorded but they also talk about Marcus Welby, M.D., so I guess it must have been from the seventies or eighties. Young is being interviewed about his film and television career and his answer to Newton's question whether there was a role that he really wanted but didn't come his way is interesting: "As a matter of fact, I was often criticised by my colleagues because I played anything that was sent to me rather than being selective or choosy. I always felt that any experience was a good experience, even a bad script was a good experience because it certainly demands more of an actor than a good script. But I never went after a part that I can recall." He goes on to say that he did want the role in Thirty Seconds over Tokyo and that he did a test for it but was considered too old for the part and it went to Van Johnson. Being asked which film is special to him, he mentions The Enchanted Cottage because of the beauty and the depth of the love story. He also names H.M. Pulham, Esq. because it was his first character role. When asked about his favourite leading lady, he mentions Helen Hayes, because she was the first one he worked with. But he says he got along with everybody.
I'm glad I came to know a little bit more about Young and that he got recognised for his talent eventually, even though the screen was smaller but fortunately with a much wider audience. I still might watch more of his films this month after publishing this post because I haven't seen H.M. Pulham, Esq. and The Second Woman yet and they are high on my watchlist. (While I was in the middle of watching Robert Young movies I heard about Doris Day's sad death on the 13th of May so I also want to see more of her films this month. Oh choices .... choices .... )
Below you will find the list of all Young films I've seen. Of the films watched prior to this month I enjoyed The Mortal Storm and Three Comrades the most and Claudia the least. I also enjoyed The Enchanted Cottage but I think I like the story itself more than how it was executed. But I want to watch it again, now I like Young more. I also really liked his supporting role in The Bride Walks Out with Barbara Stanwyck and he should have gotten the girl instead of Gene Raymond. I can't remember much of Sitting Pretty since it's been such a long time I've seen it last but I know I enjoyed it back then.
You can read my thoughts on all films seen this month in my round-up post of May.
All Robert Young films seen up till now, in watching order:
*Sitting Pretty (seen in childhood)
*Three Comrades (March 2016)
*The Mortal Storm (March 2016)
*Claudia (July 2016)
*The Enchanted Cottage (July 2016)
*I Met Him in Paris (August 2016)
*The Bride Walks Out (March 2017)
*The Right to Romance (October 2017)
*Dr. Kildare's Crisis (February 2018)
*Stowaway (May 2019)
*Crossfire (May 2019)
*Relentless (May 2019)
*Slightly Dangerous (May 2019)
*Joe Smith, American (May 2019)
*The Shining Hour (May 2019)
*Death on the Diamond (May 2019)
*Secret Agent (May 2019)
*They Won't Believe Me (May 2019)
I'm glad I came to know a little bit more about Young and that he got recognised for his talent eventually, even though the screen was smaller but fortunately with a much wider audience. I still might watch more of his films this month after publishing this post because I haven't seen H.M. Pulham, Esq. and The Second Woman yet and they are high on my watchlist. (While I was in the middle of watching Robert Young movies I heard about Doris Day's sad death on the 13th of May so I also want to see more of her films this month. Oh choices .... choices .... )
Below you will find the list of all Young films I've seen. Of the films watched prior to this month I enjoyed The Mortal Storm and Three Comrades the most and Claudia the least. I also enjoyed The Enchanted Cottage but I think I like the story itself more than how it was executed. But I want to watch it again, now I like Young more. I also really liked his supporting role in The Bride Walks Out with Barbara Stanwyck and he should have gotten the girl instead of Gene Raymond. I can't remember much of Sitting Pretty since it's been such a long time I've seen it last but I know I enjoyed it back then.
You can read my thoughts on all films seen this month in my round-up post of May.
All Robert Young films seen up till now, in watching order:
*Sitting Pretty (seen in childhood)
*Three Comrades (March 2016)
*The Mortal Storm (March 2016)
*Claudia (July 2016)
*The Enchanted Cottage (July 2016)
*I Met Him in Paris (August 2016)
*The Bride Walks Out (March 2017)
*The Right to Romance (October 2017)
*Dr. Kildare's Crisis (February 2018)
*Stowaway (May 2019)
*Crossfire (May 2019)
*Relentless (May 2019)
*Slightly Dangerous (May 2019)
*Joe Smith, American (May 2019)
*The Shining Hour (May 2019)
*Death on the Diamond (May 2019)
*Secret Agent (May 2019)
*They Won't Believe Me (May 2019)
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Young Robert Young; (2 photos)
*The Mortal Storm (1940) with Robert Young, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart;
*The Enchanted Cottage (1945) with Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire;
*Three Comrades (1938) with Franchot Tone, Robert Young and Robert Taylor;
*Robert Young and his family;
*Father Knows Best with Robert Young and Jane Wyatt and their screen children;
*Father Knows Best with Robert Young and one of his screen children;
*Robert Young and Jane Wyatt winning Emmy Awards for Father Knows Best;
*Sitting Pretty (1948) with Maureen O'Hara and Robert Young;
*Crossfire (1947) with Robert Mitchum and Robert Young;
*The Shining Hour (1938) with Robert Young and Joan Crawford.