Robert Young

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Robert George Young (February 22, 1907 – July 21, 1998) was an American film, television, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father character in Father Knows Best (CBS, then NBC, then CBS again), and the physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC).

Early life

Born in Chicago, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father, Thomas E. Young, and an American mother, Margaret Fyfe. While Young was a child, the family moved to various locations within the U.S., including Seattle as well as Los Angeles, where Young was a student at Abraham Lincoln High School. After graduation, he studied and performed at the Pasadena Playhouse while working odd jobs and appearing in bit parts in silent films. While touring with a stock company producing "The Ship", Young was discovered by a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scout who signed the fledgling actor to a contract. Young made his sound-film debut for Fox Film Corporation in the 1931 Charlie Chan film Black Camel, starring Warner Oland.

Personal life and death

Young was married to Betty Henderson for 61 years from 1933 until her death in 1994. They had four daughters: Carol Proffitt, Barbara Beebe, Kathy Young, and Betty Lou Gleason. They also had six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Despite his trademark portrayal of happy, well-adjusted characters, Young's bitterness toward Hollywood casting practices never diminished, and he suffered from depression and alcoholism, culminating in a suicide attempt in January 1991. Later, he spoke candidly about his personal problems in an effort to encourage others to seek help. The Robert Young Community Mental Health Center is named after Young in honor of his work toward passage of the 708 Illinois Tax Referendum, which established a property tax to support mental health programs in his home state. The center started in Rock Island, Illinois, and now has sites in both Iowa and Illinois, as part of the Quad-City metropolitan area.

Young died of respiratory failure at his Westlake Village, California, home on July 21, 1998.

He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; the stars are in the categories of film (located at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.), television (6358 Hollywood Blvd.), and radio (1660 Vine Street).

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Film career

Young appeared in more than 100 films between 1928 and 1952. Despite having a "tier B" role, he co-starred with some of the studio's most notable actors, including Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Sullavan, Norma Shearer, Helen Hayes, Luise Rainer, Helen Twelvetrees, and (unrelated) Loretta Young. However, the bulk of his assignments were made up of short B movies, also known as "programmers," which required brief two- to three-week shooting schedules. In six to eight films per year, actors who had been relegated to such arduous routines appeared, as Young did.

Young, as an MGM contract actor, was expected to watch any film directed to him or risk being suspended—and there were some actors who were barred from receiving a paycheck from any industry at all, even those unrelated to the film industry. MGM summarily loaned Young to Gaumont British in 1936; Alfred Hitchcock directed the first film, While Another Love You Later co-starred Jessie Matthews. While living in England, he was reassured that MGM meant to end his deal, but he was wrong.

In H.M. Pulham, Esq., he unexpectedly got one of his most rewarding roles late in his MGM career. (1941): One of Hedy Lamarr's most popular appearances, but also benefited from one of his most popular performances. He once remarked that he was only cast in those roles that Robert Montgomery and other A-list actors had turned down.

Young starred in light comedies and dramas for studios including twentieth Century Fox, United Artists, and RKO Radio Pictures after his MGM deal ended. Young appeared in films including Claudia, The Enchanted Cottage, They Won't Believe Me, The Second Woman, and Crossfire, beginning in 1943. Multiple commentators applauded his portrayals of unsympathetic characters in several of these later films, although this had never been the case in his MGM films. He returned to MGM for a brief period of time in 1949, appearing with Errol Flynn and Greer Garson in That Forsyte Woman. He was the second lead in Secret of the Incas (1954) starring Charlton Heston, the film on which the Raiders of the Lost Ark was based. Despite the picture's high quality when it was shot on location at Machu Picchu, it was the last feature film in which he appeared. Despite a promising start as a freelance actor without the support of a major studio, Young's career had started an incremental and almost imperceptible decline. He had been appearing in late 1940s and early 1950s films, but only in poor films and occasionally appearing supporting roles in major films. Then and then faded from the silver screen, only to reappear, many years later, on a much smaller one.

Young is best known as the affable insurance salesman in the long-running television series Father Knows Best (1949-1954, 1954–1960 on television), for which he and his co-star Jane Wyatt received several Emmy Awards. In the television version, Elinor Donahue ("Betty"), Billy Gray ("Bud"), and Lauren Chapin ("Kathy") played the Anderson children.

Young later developed, produced, and performed with Ford Rainey and Constance Moore in the classic CBS comedy series Window on Main Street (1961–1962).

Marcus Welby, M.D., was Young's last television series. James Brolin, 1969-1976, co-starring a young James Brolin. For the best leading actor in a drama series, this program received an Emmy Award.

He and Jimi Hendrix appeared on The Dick Cavett Show in September 1969.

He made many television commercials for Sanka coffee from 1982 to 1982.

The common phrase "I'm not a doctor," has been misattributed to Young due to his Marcus Welby, MD fame. During the 1980s, actor Chris Robinson and then Peter Bergman spoke directly.

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