Robert Arthur

Acting

Robert Arthur

Born 1925-06-18 · Aberdeen, Washington, USA

Robert Arthur (born Robert Paul Arthaud; June 18, 1925 – October 1, 2008) was an American motion picture actor who appeared in dozens of films in the 1940s and 1950s. He appeared in the 1949 war film Twelve O'Clock High as the comic relief–providing Sgt. McIllhenny, in the 1951 Billy Wilder film Ace in the Hole, and in the 1950s television program The Lone Ranger. Arthur was known for playing youthful teenage or young adult roles. In his later years, Arthur became an activist for gay rights on behalf of senior citizens. He died in Aberdeen, Washington in 2008, aged 83.

Acting credits

Ace in the Hole poster
7.8

An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

Ace in the Hole

1951

Mildred Pierce poster
7.6

A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.

Mildred Pierce

1945

Twelve O'Clock High poster
7.2

In the early days of daylight bombing raids over Germany, General Frank Savage must take command of a 'hard luck' bomber group. Much of the story deals with his struggle to whip his group into a disciplined fighting unit in spite of heavy losses, and withering attacks by German fighters over their targets.

Twelve O'Clock High

1949

Night and Day poster
6.0

When his first stage show fails, songwriter Cole Porter goes off to fight in WWI until, injured, he lands in a hospital. He impresses nurse Linda Lee with his creativity, but their budding romance must wait as Cole heads home. Back in New York, he mounts a series of popular shows, and when his work brings him back to Europe, he eventually marries Linda. But success doesn't spare him from marital complications or bad news about a beloved relative.

Night and Day

1946

Yellow Sky poster
7.0

In 1867, a gang robs a bank and flees into the desert. Out of water, the outlaws encounter a ghost town called Yellow Sky and its only residents, a hostile young woman and her grandfather.

Yellow Sky

1948

Hellcats of the Navy poster
4.8

Future "first couple" Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convinced that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen.

Hellcats of the Navy

1957

Belles on Their Toes poster
7.1

The "Cheaper by the Dozen" crew is back, sans Clifton Webb. Lillian is struggling to make ends meet without her husband's income, while Anne, Martha, and even Ernestine find romance.

Belles on Their Toes

1952

Nora Prentiss poster
6.2

Quiet, organised Dr. Talbot meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss when she is slightly hurt in a street accident. Despite her misgivings, they become heavily involved, and Talbot finds himself faced with the choice of leaving Nora or divorcing his wife. When a patient expires in his office, a third option seems to present itself.

Nora Prentiss

1947

Top of the World poster
6.5

A team of Air Force servicemen become stranded after setting up a weather station on an island of ice in Alaska.

Top of the World

1955

Young Bess poster
5.8

The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.

Young Bess

1953

You're My Everything poster
4.8

In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies.

You're My Everything

1949

Nobody Lives Forever poster
6.4

A con artist falls for the rich widow he's trying to fleece.

Nobody Lives Forever

1946

September Affair poster
6.0

An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they are reported dead in a crash though they weren't on the plane. This gives them the opportunity to live together free from their previous lives. Unfortunately, this artificial arrangement leads to greater and greater stress. Eventually the situation collapses when they come to pursue their original, individual interests without choosing a common path.

September Affair

1950

Take the High Ground! poster
6.2

Sgt. Thorne Ryan, who once fought bravely in Korea, now serves as a hard-nosed drill instructor to new Army recruits at Fort Bliss, Texas. But is he really the man he is often described as? His fellow instructor, and friend helps him to face the ghosts of his past experiences in Korea. One night in a bar across the border in Juarez, Mexico, Sgt. Ryan meets a lady who begins to turn his life around. Will this be enough to help him deal with the past? Or will he continue to be so hard on his troops?

Take the High Ground!

1953

Green Grass of Wyoming poster
6.7

The romance of a rancher's niece and a rival rancher's son parallels that of a stallion and a mare.

Green Grass of Wyoming

1948

Just for You poster
5.4

Jordan Blake (a widower) is a successful Broadway Producer who has always been to busy for his children, Barbara and Jerry. Girlfriend, Carolina a musical comedy star, urges Jordan to take his kids on a vacation and get to know them before they are all grown up. Is Jordan already too late?

Just for You

1952

Mother Wore Tights poster
5.7

In this chronicle of a vaudeville family, Myrtle McKinley (class of 1900) goes to San Francisco to attend business school, but ends up in a chorus line. Soon, star Frank Burt notices her talent, hires her for a "two-act", then marries her. Incidents of the marriage and the growing pains of eldest daughter Miriam are followed, interspersed with nostalgic musical numbers.

Mother Wore Tights

1947

Hollywood Wonderland poster
6.8

Two tour guides take visitors on a promotional tour of Warner Bros.' studios.

Hollywood Wonderland

1947

Air Cadet poster
5.7

A group of cadets have assorted problems at the U.S. Air Force Pilot Training Academy.

Air Cadet

1951

Danger Signal poster
6.0

After robbing and murdering his married lover and then making her death look like suicide, conniving philanderer Ronnie Mason relocates to Los Angeles. Under a new identity and claiming to be a writer, Ronnie finds lodging at the home of Hilda Fenchurch and her mother. He woos Hilda, knowing she has money, but when he discovers that Hilda's sister, Anne, has just inherited $25,000, he switches his attentions to her.

Danger Signal

1945

Mother Is a Freshman poster
9.0

Widow Abby Abbott is having serious money problems and has to dip into the family trust in order to pay for her daughter Susan's college tuition. The catch: Abby must also become a co-ed or she can't touch the money. After passing her entrance exams, Abby goes to college and becomes very popular, especially with a handsome English professor whom Susan has a crush on.

Mother Is a Freshman

1949

The Devil On Wheels poster
4.6

A teenager is involved in running from the police in his hot rod hits a car in a hit-and-run case where the victims turn out to be his mother and his best friend in another hot rod.

The Devil On Wheels

1947

The Desperados Are in Town poster
8.0

In this western, a young man tries to walk the straight and narrow, but he is impeded by his past. The trouble begins when the young fellow flees his family's Texas dirt farm and becomes an outlaw. He is advised by one of the desperadoes to return home. The boy does, and with hard work, makes the farm successful. Harvest time rolls around. He is just about to celebrate when the outlaws ride up and force him to help them pull a local bank job. He refuses and kills the gang leader and his brother. Meanwhile, the boy's past is revealed to the town banker. Seeing that he truly has gone straight, the banker forgives him. The boy marries and lives with his lovely bride upon his land.

The Desperados Are in Town

1956

Too Young to Know poster
7.0

A returning GI searches for the wife who left him and gave away their son.

Too Young to Know

1945

Behind the camera