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

Early life and career

Keith was born Rolland Keith Richey in Fowler, Indiana, the son of Mary Della (née Snyder) and James Haughey Richey.[1]His first wife was Laura Anne Corinne Jackson, the daughter of a prominent Cedar Rapids, Iowa family.

He is noted for the variety of his performances both as weak-willed and strong characters such as the father in Fourteen Hours (1951) and a psychopathic killer in The Lineup (1958).

His best known performances are as the ineffectual sheriff and father of biker Marlon Brando's love interest in the 1953 film The Wild One and as tougher, no-nonsense cop, this time Brando's antagonist, in the film musical, Guys And Dolls.

Keith had a starring 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" & "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 self-centered, greed-riddled family awaiting their benefactor to die.

Personal life

Keith's second wife was stage actress Helena Shipman, with whom he had a son, his only child, actor Brian Keith. On April 18, 1927, Keith married Peg Entwistle, an actress who was a decade his junior. They were divorced in 1929. Entwistle, a well-known Broadway actress, committed suicide by jumping from the "H" of the famous Hollywoodland Sign in 1932. He remained married to his fourth wife, Dorothy Tierney, until his death on December 22, 1966.

Partial Filmography

• The Other Kind of Love(1924) - George Benton
• Abraham Lincoln (1930) - Union Courier (uncredited)
• Just Imagine (1930) - Chorus Man (uncredited)
• White Shoulders (1931) - Bit Part (uncredited)
• Bad Company (1931) - Crump ak Professor aka Prof (uncredited)
• The Shadow Laughs(1933) - George Hackett
• Boomerang! (1947) - 'Mac' McCreery
• My Foolish Heart (1949) - Henry Winters
• The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) - Tim Harveigh
• Edge of Doom (1950) - Detect. Lieutenant Mandel
• Woman on the Run(1950) - Inspector Ferris
• Branded (1950) - T. Jefferson Leffingwell
• Fourteen Hours (1951) - Paul E. Cosick
• Here Comes the Groom(1951) - George Degnan
• I Want You (1951) - Thomas Greer
• Just Across the Street(1952) - Walter Medford
• Somebody Loves Me(1952) - Sam Doyle
• Battle Circus (1953) - Lt. Col. Hilary Walters
• Small Town Girl (1953) - Judge Gordon Kimbell
• Devil's Canyon (1953) - Warden Steve Morgan
• The Wild One (1953) - Sheriff Harry Bleeker
• Drum Beat (1954) - Bill Satterwhite
• Young at Heart (1954) - Gregory Tuttle
• Underwater! (1955) - Father Cannon
• Love Me or Leave Me(1955) - Bernard V. Loomis
• Guys and Dolls (1955) - Lt. Brannigan
• Ransom! (1956) - Police Chief Jim Backett
• Between Heaven and Hell(1956) - Col. Cousins
• Written on the Wind(1956) - Jasper Hadley
• Men in War (1957) - The Colonel
• My Man Godfrey (1957) - Alexander Bullock
• The Lineup (1958) - Julian
• Tempest (1958) - Capt. Miranov
• They Came to Cordura(1959) - Colonel Rogers
• Cimarron (1960) - Sam Pegler
• Posse from Hell (1961) - Captain Jeremiah Brown
• Duel of Champions(1961) - Tullio Hostilio - King of Rome