Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts
Tall, silver-maned character actor Roy Roberts began his film career as a 20th Century-Fox contractee in 1943. Nearly always cast in roles of well-tailored authority, Roberts was most effective when conveying smug villainy. As a hotel desk clerk in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), he suavely but smarmily refused to allow Jews to check into his establishment; nineteen years later, Roberts was back behind the desk and up to his old tricks, patronizingly barring a black couple from signing the register in Hotel (1966). As the forties drew to a close, Roberts figured into two of the key film noirs of the era; he was the carnival owner who opined that down-at-heels Tyrone Power had sunk so low because "he reached too high" at the end of Nightmare Alley (1947), while in 1948's He Walked By Night, Roberts enjoyed one of his few sympathetic roles as a psycho-hunting plainclothesman. And in the 3-D classic House of Wax, Roberts played the crooked business partner of Vincent Price, whose impulsive decision to burn down Price's wax museum has horrible consequences. With the role of bombastic Captain Huxley on the popular Gale Storm TV series Oh, Susanna (1956-1960), Gordon inaugurated his dignified-foil period. He later played long-suffering executive types on The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and The Lucy Show. Roy Roberts last appeared on screen as the mayor in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmography of Roy Roberts:
- Force of Evil with John Garfield , Thomas Gomez , Marie Windsor , Beau Bridges , Sheldon Leonard , Paul Fix , Joel Fluellen , Sherry Hall , Chuck Hamilton , John Indrisano , George Magrill , Paul "Tiny" Newlan , Arthur O'Connell , Edward Sr. Peil , Joey Ray , Max Wagner , Paul H. Frees , Frank O'Connor , Mickey Rooney
- The Sullivans with Anne Baxter , Thomas Mitchell , Ward Bond , Bobby Driscoll , Barbara Brown , Mae Marsh
- Those Calloways with Brian Keith , Vera Miles , Brandon DeWilde , Walter Brennan , Ed Wynn , John Larkin , Parley Baer , Frank DeKova , John Qualen , Tom Skerritt
- Colonel Effingham's Raid with Joan Bennett , William Eythe , Allyn Joslyn , Elizabeth Patterson , Donald Meek , Frank Craven , Thurston Hall , Grant Mitchell , Charles Wagenheim , Charles Coburn , Herbert Heywood , Sam McDaniel , Charles Moore , George H. Reed , Phil Tead , Minerva Urecal , Cecil Weston
- Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman , Jose Ferrer , Ward Bond , Jimmy Lydon , Francis L. Sullivan , Cecil Kellaway , Irene Rich , Ray Teal , George Coulouris , John Emery , Gene Lockhart , Leif Erickson , John Ireland , Henry Brandon , Ethan Laidlaw , Dennis Hoey , J. Carrol Naish , Alan Napier , Herbert Rudley , William Conrad , Houseley Sr. Stevenson , Jeff Corey , Bob Crosby , James Garner , Greta Granstedt , Frank S. Hagney , Chuck Hamilton , James Sr. Kirkwood , George Magrill , Frank Marlowe , Matt Moore , Harry Hays Morgan , Frances Morris , Herbert Rawlinson , Arthur Space , Minerva Urecal , Charles Wagenheim , Henry Wills , George Zucco , Mary Field
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with Spencer Tracy , Milton Berle , Sid Caesar , Buddy Hackett , Mickey Rooney , Ethel Merman , Phil Silvers , Dick Shawn , Jimmy Durante , Buster Keaton , Jonathan Winters , Edie Adams , Dorothy Provine , Eddie "Rochester" Anderson , Ben Blue , William Demarest , Peter Falk , Paul Ford , Leo Gorcey , Edward Everett Horton , Don Knotts , Carl Reiner , Andy Devine , Sterling Holloway , Marvin Kaplan , Charles McGraw , ZaSu Pitts , Madlyn Rhue , Arnold Stang , Jesse White , Lloyd Corrigan , Norman Fell , Jim Backus , Joe E. Brown , Stanley Clements , Howard DaSilva , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Allen Jenkins , Harry Lauter , Mike Mazurki , Terry-Thomas , Doodles Weaver , Jerry Lewis
Roy Roberts Trivia
