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Robert Young

Robert Young

Actor · 1907 – 1998 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Robert George Young  (February 22, 1907 – July 21, 1998) was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best (NBC and then CBS) and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC). Young appeared in over 100 films between 1931 and 1952. After appearing on stage, Young was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, in spite of having a "tier B" status, he co-starred with some of the studio's most illustrious actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Sullavan, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Helen Hayes, Luise Rainer, Hedy Lamarr, and Helen Twelvetrees. Yet, most of his assignments consisted of B movies, also known as "programmers," which required two to three weeks of shooting (considered very brief shooting periods at the time). Actors who were relegated to such a hectic schedule appeared, as Young did, in some six to eight movies per year. As an MGM contract player, Young was resigned to the fate of most of his colleagues—to accept any film assigned to him or risk being placed on suspension—and many actors on suspension were prohibited from earning a salary from any endeavor at all (even those unrelated to the film industry). In 1936, MGM summarily loaned Young to Gaumont British for two films; the first was directed by Alfred Hitchcock with the other co-starring Jessie Matthews. While there he surmised that his employers intended to terminate his contract, but he was mistaken. He unexpectedly received one of his most rewarding roles late in his MGM career, in H.M. Pulham, Esq., featuring one of Hedy Lamarr's most effective performances. He once remarked that he was assigned only those roles which Robert Montgomery and other A-list actors had rejected. After his contract ended at MGM, Young starred in light comedies as well as in trenchant dramas for studios such as 20th Century Fox, United Artists, and RKO Radio Pictures. From 1943, Young assayed more challenging roles in films like Claudia, The Enchanted Cottage, They Won't Believe Me, The Second Woman, and Crossfire. His portrayal of unsympathetic characters in several of these later films—which was seldom the case in his MGM pictures—was applauded by numerous reviewers. Young's career began an incremental and imperceptible decline, despite a propitious beginning as a freelance actor without the nurturing of a major studio. He continued starring as a leading man in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but only in mediocre films, then he subsequently disappeared from the silver screen - only to reappear several years later on a much smaller one. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Young (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Movies24

  • Movie5.9

    Secret of the Incas

    1954 · 60 votes

  • Movie7.4

    That's Entertainment!

    1974 · 71 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Western Union

    1941 · 88 votes

  • Movie8.3
  • Movie6.7

    Crossfire

    1947 · 166 votes

  • Movie7.1
  • Movie7.0
  • Movie7.3

    The Mortal Storm

    1940 · 101 votes

  • Movie6.5

    They Won't Believe Me

    1947 · 50 votes

  • Movie6.8
  • Movie6.1

    Secret Agent

    1936 · 176 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Lady Luck

    1946 · 8 votes

  • Movie5.6

    The Second Woman

    1950 · 36 votes

  • Movie5.8
  • Movie5.6

    Hollywood Party

    1934 · 16 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Carolina

    1934 · 3 votes

  • Movie7.1

    H.M. Pulham, Esq.

    1941 · 11 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Twenty Years After

    1944 · 2 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Navy Blue and Gold

    1937 · 11 votes

  • Movie6.2

    The House of Rothschild

    1934 · 23 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Northwest Passage

    1940 · 64 votes

  • Movie6.9

    The Canterville Ghost

    1944 · 47 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie5.0

    The Toy Wife

    1938 · 8 votes

Series22

  • TV7.0

    What's My Line?

    1950 · 29 votes

  • TV7.0

    Golden Globe Awards

    1944 · 20 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Merv Griffin Show

    1962 · 12 votes

  • TV5.7

    Dr. Kildare

    1961 · 19 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Dick Cavett Show

    1968 · 22 votes

  • TV7.0

    The Name of the Game

    1968 · 13 votes

  • TV5.9
  • TV6.8

    The Ed Sullivan Show

    1948 · 23 votes

  • TV6.6

    Father Knows Best

    1954 · 28 votes

  • TV3.8

    Climax!

    1954 · 12 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Partridge Family

    1970 · 35 votes

  • TV6.5
  • TV6.6

    Marcus Welby, M.D.

    1969 · 20 votes

  • TV7.0

    Dinah!

    1974 · 4 votes

  • TV6.2

    The Steve Allen Show

    1956 · 6 votes

  • TV6.5

    This Is Your Life

    1952 · 13 votes

  • TV6.8
  • TV6.8

    ABC Stage 67

    1966 · 6 votes

  • TV6.8

    Donny & Marie

    1976 · 9 votes

  • TV5.0

    Vanished

    1971 · 6 votes

  • TV6.3

    Little Women

    1978 · 7 votes

  • TV6.7

    Window on Main Street

    1961 · 3 votes