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Robert Rockwell

Robert Rockwell

Actor · 1920 – 2003 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Robert Rockwell was an American stage, film, radio and television actor. He is best known for playing the handsome, but awkward biology teacher Philip Boynton in the radio and television sitcom Our Miss Brooks opposite Eve Arden. A native of Lake Bluff, Illinois, Rockwell studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, from which he obtained a master's degree. During World War II he enlisted in the US Navy for four years serving in Washington D.C. Dramatic roles often eluded him, however, after beginning his career as a contract player for Republic Studios he appeared, over his almost 50-year acting career, in more than 350 television episodes and, on stage, opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and with Ginger Rogers during the 1960s in a San Diego production of Whitfield Cook's play A More Perfect Union. He appeared in the first Superman television show episode as Clark Kent's father, Jor-El in 1952. He appeared in a 1959 Perry Mason episode "The case of the Deadly Toy" as love interest to the defendant Claire Allison as Dick Benedict. He starred in the 1961 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Misguided Missile" as an Air Force officer court-martialled on a murder charge. He later starred in the 1962 Perry Mason episodes "The Case of the Lurid Letter" as Everett Rixby, a high school principal, and the murderer Cole B. Troy in "The Case of the Shapely Shadow". He also appeared as Ed Purvis in the 1965 episode Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Candy Queen". Rockwell starred in his own ABC western-themed television series, The Man from Blackhawk in the 1959-1960 season. Rockwell was cast as the Blackhawk Insurance Company's key investigator, Sam Logan, who is assigned to weed out fraud in the payment of claims. He also played Sam Thompson in Thompson's Ghost, Tom Bennett in The Bill Cosby Show[4]:106 and Officer Russo in Adam-12. In 1967 he played a littering tourist in the Lassie episode "Lassie's Litter Bit", an iconic episode which earned a trip for Lassie to the White House to shake hands with then First Lady "Ladybird" Johnson who had used the famous collie in her Keep America Beautiful Campaign. Rockwell was a founding member of the California Artists Radio Theatre. He played standard leads in a couple of anti-Communist-era features, including Republic's The Red Menace, in which he is cast as a returning veteran of World War II, who is duped by communists. Later in his career, he appeared on episodes of Petticoat Junction, Growing Pains, and Beverly Hills, 90210. His appearances in commercials and voiceovers totaled more than 200, most notably as the armchair grandfather treating his grandson to a piece of candy in the 1995 version of the Werthers Original candy spot.

Series24

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV6.9

    Knots Landing

    1979 · 47 votes

  • TV7.3

    Beverly Hills, 90210

    1990 · 848 votes

  • TV6.9

    Dallas

    1978 · 249 votes

  • TV7.0

    Maverick

    1957 · 43 votes

  • TV5.5

    Falcon Crest

    1981 · 64 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Waltons

    1972 · 106 votes

  • TV6.5

    Dynasty

    1981 · 135 votes

  • TV6.3

    Lassie

    1954 · 74 votes

  • TV7.1

    Hunter

    1984 · 102 votes

  • TV6.7

    Charlie's Angels

    1976 · 241 votes

  • TV7.2

    Newhart

    1982 · 65 votes

  • TV5.9

    Petticoat Junction

    1963 · 42 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Lucy Show

    1962 · 53 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Ed Sullivan Show

    1948 · 23 votes

  • TV6.2

    Yancy Derringer

    1958 · 11 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.2

    Green Acres

    1965 · 80 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Lone Ranger

    1949 · 36 votes

  • TV6.7

    Here's Lucy

    1968 · 31 votes

  • TV5.8

    The Millionaire

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV6.3

    Surfside 6

    1960 · 3 votes

  • TV7.1

    Benson

    1979 · 44 votes

  • TV6.2

    Eight Is Enough

    1977 · 43 votes

Movies23

  • Movie6.8

    The War of the Worlds

    1953 · 732 votes

  • Movie5.7
  • Movie6.3

    The Turning Point

    1952 · 34 votes

  • Movie6.8

    You Gotta Stay Happy

    1948 · 18 votes

  • Movie5.6
  • Movie6.9

    Sol Madrid

    1968 · 5 votes

  • Movie7.6

    Hell Hath No Fury

    1991 · 5 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Our Miss Brooks

    1956 · 12 votes

  • Movie6.2

    The Frogmen

    1951 · 28 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Just for You

    1952 · 4 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Golden Gate

    1981 · 1 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Federal Agent at Large

    1950 · 3 votes

  • Movie4.0

    Perfect Alibi

    1995 · 5 votes

  • Movie9.0

    Belle of Old Mexico

    1950 · 1 votes

  • Movie
  • Movie5.3
  • Movie8.0
  • Movie10.0

    A Letter to Nancy

    1965 · 1 votes

  • Movie7.8

    Lonely Heart Bandits

    1950 · 2 votes

  • Movie
  • Movie7.0

    Trial Without Jury

    1950 · 1 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Destination Big House

    1950 · 1 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Alias the Champ

    1949 · 3 votes