Robert Easton

Robert Easton

Though born in Milwaukee, actor Robert Easton has earned much of his cinematic bread and butter playing Southerners. Easton first gained national attention as one of the "Quiz Kids" on the radio series of the same name. In films from 1949, the gangling Easton was often seen as a blank-faced, slow-talking hayseed. Actually, Easton's Southern cadence is but one tiny aspect of his talent; for the past three decades, he has been acknowledged and celebrated as Hollywood's leading dialectician and vocal coach. Stars ranging from Gregory Peck to Sir Laurence Olivier have sought out Easton's services to instruct them in the intricacies of specific regional and ethnic dialects. Robert Easton continues to appear in rustic codger roles in such films as The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and Needful Things (1993); recently, Easton was forced to bypass his vast repertoire of existing dialects and come up with a wholly original speech pattern for his role as a Klingon judge in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide