Robert Wilcox Biography

The son of a Rochester, NY, physician, debonair leading man Robert Wilcox entered films in 1936 after being spotted in a summer-stock production of The Petrified Forest. In 1937, he married MGM starlet Florence Rice (the daughter of sportswriter Grantland Rice) , divorcing her two years later. Wilcox' notorious second marriage, to the troubled Diana Barrymore, created headlines for years due to the couple's rather public battle with alcoholism, an affliction which shortened the actor's screen career -- and life -- considerably. Barrymore's autobiography, Too Much Too Soon, published two years after his death, was dedicated to Wilcox. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi