Robert Keith (actor)

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American actor (1898–1966)

title: "Robert Keith (actor)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1898-births", "1966-deaths", "male-actors-from-indiana", "20th-century-american-male-actors", "american-male-film-actors", "american-male-television-actors", "people-from-lafayette,-indiana", "people-from-fowler,-indiana", "burials-at-holy-cross-cemetery,-culver-city"] description: "American actor (1898–1966)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_(actor)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actor (1898–1966) ::

::data[format=table title="infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameRobert Keith
imageFile:Robert Keith 1953.jpg
captionKeith in 1953
birth_nameRolland Keith Richey
birth_date
birth_placeFowler, Indiana, U.S.
death_date
death_placeLos Angeles, California. U.S.
resting_placeHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City
occupationActor
yearsactive1924–1964
spouse{{Plainlist
* {{marriagePeg Entwistle
childrenBrian Keith
::

| name = Robert Keith | image = File:Robert Keith 1953.jpg | caption = Keith in 1953 | birth_name = Rolland Keith Richey | birth_date = | birth_place = Fowler, Indiana, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California. U.S. | resting_place = Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City | occupation = Actor | yearsactive = 1924–1964 | spouse = {{Plainlist|

  • Laura Corinne Jackson (m. 1917; div. before 1919)
  • Helena Shipman (m. after 1920; div. 1926)

| children = Brian Keith

Rolland Keith Richey (February 10, 1898December 22, 1966), known professionally as Robert Keith, was an American stage and film actor who appeared in several dozen films, mostly in the 1950s as a character actor.

Early life

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/The-Children's-Hour-1935-1.jpg" caption="The Children's Hour]]'' (1934)"] ::

Keith was born in Fowler, Indiana, the son of Mary Della (née Snyder) and James Haughey Richey.

Career

He portrayed characters such as the father in Fourteen Hours (1951) and a psychopathic gangster in The Lineup (1958).

He also played the police chief and father of biker Marlon Brando's love interest in the 1953 film The Wild One, and as another cop, this time Brando's antagonist, in the film musical, Guys and Dolls.

Keith had a large supporting role in Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind. He had roles on television, including a role as Richard Kimble's father in The Fugitive and lead roles on episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Ten O'Clock Tiger" and "Final Escape") and The Twilight Zone ("The Masks"), which was his last screen effort, in the role of Jason Foster, the rich New Orleans patriarch to a family waiting for their benefactor to die. He appeared as scientist Garson Lee in a 1954 episode of The Motorola Television Hour "Atomic Attack".

Personal life

Keith's second wife was stage actress Helena Shipman, with whom he had a son, actor Brian Keith (b. 1921).

On April 18, 1927, Keith married Peg Entwistle, an actress who was a decade his junior. They were divorced in 1929, with Entwistle citing abuse and domestic cruelty in her divorce filing. Entwistle also stated that Keith had deceived her into believing that he had never been married before. Keith married his fourth wife, Dorothy Tierney, in a secret wedding ceremony on an undisclosed date in 1930. They met in late 1929 while both were acting at different theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area. The couple remained together until Keith's death on December 22, 1966. Among the honorary pallbearers at his funeral were Ronald Reagan, Edward G. Robinson, and James Cagney.

Partial filmography

References

References

  1. "Indiana Hollywood Hall of Fame: Robert Keith".
  2. Zeruk Jr., James. (2013). "Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign Suicide". McFarland.
  3. (May 5, 1929). "Hair Pulling Is Sufficient For Divorce Decree". The Montana Standard.
  4. (May 3, 1929). "Stage Folk Air Discord In Romance". Los Angeles Times.
  5. (June 4, 1930). "Actor Forgets Lines—and Marriage Secret is Out". Oakland Tribune.
  6. (December 27, 1966). "Actor-Writer Robert Keith Rites Pending". Pasadena Star-News.

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1898-births1966-deathsmale-actors-from-indiana20th-century-american-male-actorsamerican-male-film-actorsamerican-male-television-actorspeople-from-lafayette,-indianapeople-from-fowler,-indianaburials-at-holy-cross-cemetery,-culver-city