Robert Preston
Highest Rated: 100% Beau Geste (1939)
Lowest Rated: 29% Mame (1974)
Birthday: Jun 8, 1918
Birthplace: Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, USA
A vital, virile, exciting Broadway performer, Preston was once called, "the best American actor -- with a voice like golden thunder," by Richard Burton. He decided to become an actor at age 15. After studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he became a steady, dependable performer in Hollywood films from the late '30s. Preston became well-known after Cecil B. De Mille cast him as Barbara Stanwyck's gambler husband in Union Pacific (1939). He was almost strictly a second-lead actor for 20 years, finally breaking through to lead roles after becoming a star on Broadway. For his Broadway performance (his first in a musical) as ebullient con-artist Harold Hill in The Music Man he won a Tony Award; he repeated the role in the screen version (1962) and it became the work for which he is best known. Preston went on to earn another Tony Award for his performance in the 1966 musical I Do! I Do!, opposite Mary Martin. Another outstanding performance was as Julie Andrews' gay friend Toddie in Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria (1982), a performance which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.

Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

CREDIT
No Score Yet Going Hollywood: The 30s Actor — 2006
No Score Yet Broadway's Lost Treasures Actor — 2003
No Score Yet Outrage! Dennis Riordan — 1986
77% The Last Starfighter Centauri — 1984
No Score Yet Finnegan Begin Again Mike Finnegan — 1984
No Score Yet September Gun Actor — 1983
No Score Yet Rehearsal for Murder Alex Dennison — 1982
96% Victor Victoria Carole "Toddy" Todd — 1982
86% S.O.B. Dr. Irving Finegarten $14.9M 1981
No Score Yet Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg Mr. Stranger — 1980
No Score Yet The Chisholms Actor — 1979
88% Semi-Tough Big Ed Bookman — 1977
No Score Yet My Father's House Actor — 1975
29% Mame Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside — 1974
91% Junior Bonner Ace Bonner — 1972
No Score Yet Child's Play Joseph Dobbs — 1972
No Score Yet All the Way Home Jay Follett — 1963
No Score Yet Island of Love Steve Blair — 1963
90% How the West Was Won Roger Morgan — 1963
94% The Music Man Prof. Harold Hill — 1962
No Score Yet The Dark at the Top of the Stairs Rubin Flood — 1960
No Score Yet The Last Frontier Col. Frank Marston — 1955
No Score Yet Cloudburst John Graham — 1951
No Score Yet My Outlaw Brother Joe Waldner — 1951
No Score Yet Best of the Badmen Matthew Fowler — 1951
No Score Yet The Sundowners James Cloud ('Kid Wichita') — 1950
No Score Yet Tulsa Brad Brady — 1949
No Score Yet The Lady Gambles David Boothe — 1949
No Score Yet Whispering Smith Murray Sinclair — 1948
No Score Yet Blood on the Moon Tate Riling — 1948
No Score Yet Wild Harvest Jim Davis — 1947
No Score Yet The Macomber Affair (The Great White Hunter) Francis Macomber — 1947
No Score Yet Variety Girl Himself — 1947
No Score Yet Wings Up! Actor — 1943
No Score Yet Star Spangled Rhythm Guest — 1942
83% Wake Island Joe Doyle — 1942
93% This Gun for Hire Det. Michael Crane — 1942
71% Reap the Wild Wind Dan Cutler — 1942
100% Beau Geste Digby Geste — 1939
No Score Yet Union Pacific Dick Allen — 1939

QUOTES FROM Robert Preston CHARACTERS