Robert Young

“I was an introvert in an extrovert profession.” –Robert Young

The 1950s were an era in which television flourished as a competitor to film. Audiences could welcome actors into their living rooms by merely turning on the television and enjoying the latest shows. While many shows were in vogue, Father Knows Best was certainly among them, featuring actor Robert Young.

Robert George Young was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 22, 1907. His father was Irish immigrant Thomas E. Young, while his mother, Margaret Fyfe, was American. Though he was born in Chicago, by the time he turned three years old, he and his family had moved to Seattle. The family would relocate once again to Pasadena, where young attended Abraham Lincoln High School.

While attending Lincoln High School, he met his future wife Elizabeth “Betty” Henderson. She encouraged a shy Robert into trying acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse after graduation. According to the 1926 yearbook for Lincoln High School, Robert was active in school in multiple extracurricular activities and leadership roles, including: Head Yell Leader, Commissioner (Boys’ Sports), Playcrafters, carrying out one of the lead roles in Taming of the Shrew and Pals and Sherwood, as well as performing a leading role in the opera Briar Rose.

Upon his high school graduation, Robert performed at the Pasadena Playhouse. He also worked several odd jobs, including brief stints as a bank clerk and reporter. At the same time, he appeared in silent films, carrying out bit part roles. While touring with a stock company, Robert was soon discovered by a Metro-Goldwyn Mayer talent scout and was signed to a contract. He made his film debut for MGM in the Charlie Chan film, Black Camel (1931).

Robert soon signed a contract with MGM and appeared mostly in B movies, working on roughly six to eight films per year. Between 1931 and 1952, Robert worked on over 100 films. Moreover, he also worked with alongside several notable actresses, including Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Luise Rainer, and Hedy Lamarr. While Robert took on whatever roles were offered to him to avoid being placed on suspension, one of his most notable roles was as Harry Pulham in H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941).

During this time, Robert married in 1933, with whom he had four daughters: Carol, Barbara, Kathy, and Betty Lou. He and Betty would remain married for 61 years until her passing in 1994.

Once his contract with MGM came to an end, Robert appeared in a mixture of light comedies and dramas for various studios, including 20th Century Fox, United Artists, and RKO Radio Pictures. However, after 1943, Robert fulfilled roles that were more challenging, often portraying callous characters. As the 1940s continued on, however, Robert’s career began to decline. Because of the disappointing roles he was receiving as a studio player, he decided to work independently of the studio. He was initially off to a strong start as a freelance actor and found roles as a leading man, but the films in which he appeared continued to be largely mediocre.

Susan Hayward, Robert Young Directed by Irving Pichel

Quiet soft spoken Robert grew up in California and had some stage experience with the Pasadena Playhouse before entering films in 1931. His movie career consisted of characters who were charming, good looking and bland as ever. In fact, his screen image was such that he usually never got the girl. Louis B. Mayer would say “He has no sex appeal”, but he had a work ethic that prepared him for every role that he played. And he did play in as many as eleven films per year for a decade starting with ‘The Black Camel’ in 1931. He had some note as the spy in Hitchcock’s ‘Secret Agent’ in 1936, but it would be in the forties before he would have some of his best roles. Some of them were ‘Northwest Passage (1940)’; ‘Western Union (1941)’; and ‘H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)’. Good roles followed from the husband of Dorothy McGuire in ‘Claudia (1943)’ to the detective in ‘Crossfire (1947), but the good roles were few. In 1949, Robert started a radio show called “Father Knows Best” where he played Jim Anderson, an average father with average situations – which was tailor made for him. Basically retiring from films, this program ran for five years on Radio before it went to Television in 1954. After a slight falter in the ratings and a switch from CBS to NBC, it would be a mainstay of television until it was cancelled in 1960. He would continue making guest appearances on various television shows and work in television movies. In 1969, he starred as Dr. Marcus Welby in the TV movie “Marcus Welby, M.D.”. This show would become his new series and run from 1969 through 1976 and also feature James Brolin as his assistant, Dr. Steven Kiley – the doc with the bike. After that, Robert, who by now was in his seventies, would finally lick the 30 year battle that he had with alcohol. He would occasionally appear in television movies through the eighties.

publicity photo for the 1941 movie “Lady Be Good”

Robert Young 1930’s – by Tanner (MGM). Restored by jane for Doctor Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans website: http://www.doctormacro.com. Enjoy!

While his career on the screen came to an end, Robert focused his efforts on radio. However, he would find even more success on the small screen: television.

Young is best remembered for his portrayal of Jim Anderson, the family patriarch and insurance salesman in the Father Knows Best Series. The show was a sitcom that chronicled the lives of the fictitious Andersons, a middle-class family living in the Midwestern town of Springfield. The show started off as a radio series, which ran from 1949 to 1954. When the series transitioned to television, Robert continued on in the same role from 1954 to 1960. Robert’s co-star on the show was Jane Wyatt, while Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, and Lauren Chapin played their children. Both Robert and Jane earned several Emmy awards throughout the duration of the program. At the height of the show’s success, Robert grew tired of the character and left to take on new opportunities.

After Father Knows Best, Robert starred in the comedy series Window on Main Street, which he also created and produced. Unfortunately, the series was short-lived and came to an end within six months. Next, Robert took on his final television series, which was Marcus Welby, M.D., for which he earned an Emmy as the best leading actor in a drama series. Afterwards, he spent several years working in television commercials to advertise Sanka coffee.

While Robert portrayed happy and level-headed characters throughout his career, his personal life was quite different. Disappointed and bitter about his mediocre career in the studio system, Robert suffered greatly from depression and alcoholism. Robert was dealing with depression since 1946, and his wife was also depressed. By 1991, he attempted suicide by attaching a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car and intended to have the fumes release in the interior of the vehicle. However, Robert’s car broke down, leading him to call for a tow truck. The tow truck driver noticed the hose and called the police. Robert had been drinking and admitted that he planned to end his life. As a result, he was admitted voluntarily for a 24-hour observation period at Charter Hospital in Thousand Oaks. According to his wife, Robert had tried to form a suicide pact with her, but she did not think he was being serious.

Over the years, Robert spoke openly of his struggles with alcohol and depression. He attribute his negative feelings to the fact that he was portraying characters that were constantly content and positive, while Robert was deeply unhappy inside.

Robert passed away from respiratory failure on July 21, 1998, in his Westlake Village, California, home.

Because Robert and his family moved quite a bit during his early years, there are places of relevance to him both in his home state and beyond. According to the 1910 census, Robert and his family were living at 4730 19th Ave. NE in Seattle, Washington, when he was three years old. Here a picture of the property today:

By 1920, Robert and his family had moved to 26 S Michigan Ave. in Pasadena, California. This is what the property looks like currently:

Robert’s alma mater, Abraham Lincoln High School, continues to operate as a high school. It is located at 3501 N Broadway in Los Angeles, California.

The Pasadena Playhouse, where Robert participated in live theater, continues to operate as a theater today, producing cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and also hosting community engagements. It is located at 39 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena, California.

While many places of relevance to Robert are focused in California, his home state of Illinois does possess one building that recognizes his work towards the passage of the 708 Illinois Tax Referendum. The Referendum established a property tax in order to support mental health programs in the state of Illinois. The Robert Young Community Mental Health Center is named after Young in honor of his work. It was started in Rock Island, Illinois, but has since opened additional locations in Iowa and Illinois, as part of the Quad-City Metro Area. The original location is at 2200 3rd Ave. in Rock Island, Illinois.

Though Robert’s life had its ups and downs, it is comforting to know that the staff at the Robert Young Community Mental Health Centers continue to assist individuals with similar struggles and provide them with the help they need.

This post originally appeared in the Annette’s Classic Movie Travels column for Classic Movie Hub. View the original article here.