Robert Young

Highest Rated: 100% The Plot Against Harry (1989)

Lowest Rated: 8% Splitting Heirs (1993)

Birthday: Not Available

Birthplace: Not Available

Chicago-born Robert Young carried his inbred "never give up" work ethic into his training at the Pasadena Playhouse. After a few movie-extra roles, he was signed by MGM to play a bit part as Helen Hayes' son in 1931's Sin of Madelon Claudet. At the request of MGM head Irving Thalberg, Young's role was expanded during shooting, thus the young actor was launched on the road to stardom (his first-released film was the Charlie Chan epic Black Camel [1931], which he made while on loan to Fox Studios). Young appeared in as many as nine films per year in the 1930s, usually showing up in bon vivant roles. Alfred Hitchcock sensed a darker side to Young's ebullient nature, and accordingly cast the actor as a likeable American who turns out to be a cold-blooded spy in 1936's The Secret Agent. Some of Young's best film work was in the 1940s, with such roles as the facially disfigured war veteran in The Enchanted Cottage (1945) and the no-good philanderer in They Won't Believe Me (1947). In 1949, Young launched the radio sitcom Father Knows Best, starring as insurance salesman/paterfamilias Jim Anderson (it was his third weekly radio series). The series' title was originally ironic in that Anderson was perhaps one of the most stupidly stubborn of radio dads. By the time Father Knows Best became a TV series in 1954, Young had refined his Jim Anderson characterization into the soul of sagacity. Young became a millionaire thanks to his part-ownership of Father Knows Best, which, despite a shaky beginning, ran successfully until 1960 (less popular was his 1961 TV dramedy Window on Main Street, which barely lasted a full season). His second successful series was Marcus Welby, M.D. (1968-1973). Young's later TV work has included one-shot revivals of Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, and the well-received 1986 TV-movie Mercy or Murder, in which Young essayed the role of a real-life pensioner who killed his wife rather than allow her to endure a painful, lingering illness. Young passed away from respiratory failure at his Westlake Village, CA, home at the age of 91.

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Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	BOX OFFICE	YEAR
No Score Yet	All at Sea	Director Producer	—	2010
38%	Eichmann	Director	$3.2k	2010
No Score Yet	BloodMonkey (Blood Monkey)	Director	—	2008
No Score Yet	The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Espionage Escapades	Director	—	2007
No Score Yet	Romance With A Double Bass	Director	—	2003
No Score Yet	Captain Jack	Director	—	1999
No Score Yet	Jane Eyre	Director	—	1997
55%	Fierce Creatures	Director	—	1997
No Score Yet	The Canterville Ghost	Actor	—	1996
No Score Yet	Doomsday Gun	Director	—	1994
No Score Yet	White Goods	Director	—	1994
No Score Yet	Hostage	Director	—	1993
8%	Splitting Heirs	Director	—	1993
100%	The Plot Against Harry	Producer	—	1989
No Score Yet	A Conspiracy of Love	Joe Woldarski	—	1987
No Score Yet	Mercy or Murder?	Roswell Gilbert	—	1987
No Score Yet	Little Women	James Lawrence	—	1978
No Score Yet	To Fly	Screenwriter	—	1976
80%	Vampire Circus	Director	—	1972
94%	Born Free	James	—	1966
98%	Nothing But a Man	Producer	$9.7k	1963
88%	I'm All Right Jack	Actor	—	1960
No Score Yet	Secret of the Incas	Stanley Moorehead	—	1954
No Score Yet	The Half-Breed	Dan Craig	—	1952
No Score Yet	Goodbye, My Fancy	Dr. James Merrill	—	1951
No Score Yet	The Second Woman	Jeff Cohalan	—	1950
No Score Yet	That Forsyte Woman	Philip Bosinney	—	1949
No Score Yet	Adventure in Baltimore	Pastor Andrew Sheldon	—	1949
No Score Yet	Sitting Pretty	Harry	—	1948
No Score Yet	They Won't Believe Me	Larry Ballentine	—	1947
82%	Crossfire	Capt. Finlay	—	1947
No Score Yet	Lady Luck	Larry Scott	—	1946
86%	The Enchanted Cottage	Oliver Bradford	—	1945
86%	The Canterville Ghost	Cuffy Williams	—	1944
No Score Yet	Claudia	David Naughton	—	1943
No Score Yet	Sweet Rosie O'grady	Actor	—	1943
No Score Yet	Slightly Dangerous	Bob Stuart	—	1943
No Score Yet	Journey for Margaret	John Davis	—	1942
No Score Yet	Cairo	Homer Smith	—	1942
No Score Yet	Joe Smith, American	Joe Smith	—	1942
No Score Yet	H.M. Pulham, Esq.	Harry Pulham	—	1941
No Score Yet	Lady Be Good	Edward Crane	—	1941
83%	Western Union	Richard Blake	—	1941
No Score Yet	Married Bachelor	Randolph Haven	—	1941
No Score Yet	Dr. Kildare's Crisis	Douglas Lamont	—	1940
100%	Northwest Passage	Langdon	—	1940
100%	The Mortal Storm	Fritz Marberg	—	1940
No Score Yet	Miracles For Sale	Actor	—	1939
No Score Yet	Honolulu	George Smith/Brooks Mason	—	1939
No Score Yet	The Shining Hour	David Linden	—	1938
100%	Three Comrades	Gottfried	—	1938
No Score Yet	The Emperor's Candlesticks	Grand Duke Peter	—	1937
No Score Yet	Married Before Breakfast (Married by Noon)	Tom Wakefield	—	1937
No Score Yet	I Met Him in Paris	Gene Anders	—	1937
No Score Yet	Navy Blue and Gold	Roger Ash	—	1937
No Score Yet	The Bride Wore Red	Rudi Pal	—	1937
No Score Yet	Stowaway	Tommy Randall	—	1936
No Score Yet	The Longest Night	Charley Phelps	—	1936
No Score Yet	The Bride Walks Out	Hugh McKenzie	—	1936
86%	Secret Agent	Robert Marvin	—	1936
No Score Yet	The Bride Comes Home	Jack Bristow	—	1936
No Score Yet	It's Love Again	Peter Carlton	—	1936
No Score Yet	Remember Last Night?	Tony Milburn	—	1935
No Score Yet	West Point of the Air	Little Mike	—	1935
No Score Yet	Vagabond Lady	Tony Spear	—	1935
No Score Yet	Calm Yourself	Preston 'Pat' Patton	—	1935
No Score Yet	Red Salute	Jeff	—	1935
No Score Yet	Paris Interlude	Patrick 'Pat' Wells	—	1934
No Score Yet	Hollywood Party	Himself	—	1934
No Score Yet	Spitfire	John Stafford	—	1934
100%	The House of Rothschild	Captain Fitzroy	—	1934
No Score Yet	The Right to Romance	Bobby Preble	—	1933
No Score Yet	Tugboat Annie	Alexander 'Alec' Brennan	—	1933
No Score Yet	Hell Below	Lt. Brick Walters	—	1933
20%	Today We Live	Claude	—	1933
No Score Yet	Men Must Fight	Geoffrey	—	1933
No Score Yet	Strange Interlude	Gordon	—	1932
No Score Yet	The Kid from Spain	Ricardo	—	1932
No Score Yet	Unashamed	Richard 'Dick' Ogden	—	1932
No Score Yet	New Morals for Old	Ralph Thomas	—	1932
No Score Yet	The Wet Parade	Kip Tarleton	—	1932
No Score Yet	Hell Divers	Young Officer	—	1932
No Score Yet	The Guilty Generation	Marco Ricca/John Smith	—	1931
No Score Yet	The Sin of Madelon Claudet	Dr. Jacques Claudet	—	1931
No Score Yet	Charlie Chan in the Black Camel	Jimmy Bradshaw	—	1931

TV

RATING	TITLE	CREDIT	YEAR
No Score Yet	Father Knows Best 1954-1960	Jim Anderson Producer	2021 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954
No Score Yet	Jeeves and Wooster 1993	Director	2005
No Score Yet	Mystery! 1980-2007	Director	2003
No Score Yet	Kojak 1973-1978	Director Screenwriter	1976 1974 1973
No Score Yet	Marcus Welby, M.D. 1969-1976	Dr. Marcus Welby	1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969
No Score Yet	The Waltons 1972-1981	Screenwriter	1973
No Score Yet	GBH 1991	Director
No Score Yet	Hammer House of Horror 1980	Director
No Score Yet	The Avengers (1961) 1969	Judge

Quotes from Robert Young's Characters

Capt. Finlay:

Well hate, Monty's kind of hate, is like a gun. If you carry it around with you it can go off and kill somebody. It killed Samuels last night.

Capt. Finlay:

I'm not interested in philosophy, I'm trying to solve a murder.

Capt. Finlay:

All I'm asking for is facts.

Capt. Finlay:

Nothing interests me anymore. It used to but not anymore. I've been at this job too long. I go about it the only way I know how; I collect all the facts possible - most of them are useless.

Erich Lohkamp:	Oh, I acted like an idiot.
Gottfried Lenz:	Send flowers! They cover everything, even graves.

Gottfried Lenz:

Give a hoodlum a club and they'll run anything.

On Dvd & Streaming

Robert Young

Photos

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

TV

Quotes from Robert Young's Characters