PRESTON, Robert

Nationality: American. Born: Robert Preston Meservey in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, 8 June 1918. Education: Attended Lincoln High School, Hollywood. Family: Married Catherine Feltus Craig, 1941. Career: 1934—joined Shakespearian group managed by Mrs. Tyrone Power Sr.; then worked at Pasadena Community Theatre for two years; 1938—film debut in King of Alcatraz; contract with Paramount; also acted on stage in 18 Actors company; 1942–46—served in U.S. Army Air Force; 1951—in TV series Man against Crime, Anywhere, U.S.A. series, 1952–54, and mini-series The Chisholms, 1980; 1951—on stage in Twentieth Century; later stage roles include The Male Animal, The Tender Trap, 1954, His and Hers, 1954, The Music Man, 1957 (and film version, 1962), I Do! I Do!, 1968, and Mack and Mabel, 1974. Awards: Tony Awards, for I Do! I Do!, 1967, and The Music Man, 1958; Best Supporting Actor Award, U.S. National Film Critics, for S.O.B., 1981. Died: Of lung cancer, in Santa Barbara, California, 21 March 1987.

Films as Actor:

1938

King of Alcatraz (Florey) (as Robert MacArthur); Illegal Traffic (Louis King) (as Bent Martin)

1939

Disbarred (Florey) (as Bradley Kent); Union Pacific (Cecil B.DeMille) (as Dick Allen); Beau Geste (Wellman) (as Digby Geste)

1940

Typhoon (Louis King) (as Johnny Porter); Moon over Burma(Louis King) (as Chuck Lane); Northwest Mounted Police(Cecil B. DeMille) (as Constable Ronnie Logan)

1941

New York Town (Charles Vidor) (as Paul Bryson Jr.); Lady from Cheyenne (Lloyd) (as Steve); Night of January 16th(Clemens) (as Steve Van Ruyle); Parachute Battalion(Goodwins) (as Donald Morse)

1942

Pacific Blackout (Midnight Angel) (Murphy) (as Robert Draper);Reap the Wild Wind (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Dan Cutler);This Gun for Hire (Tuttle) (as Michael Crane); Wake Island(Farrow) (as Joe Doyle); Star Spangled Rhythm (George Marshall) (cameo role)

1943

Night Plane from Chung-King (Murphy) (as Capt. Nick Stanton)

1947

Wild Harvest (Garnett) (as Jim Davis); The Macomber Affair(Zoltan Korda) (as Francis Macomber); Variety Girl (George Marshall) (cameo role)

1948

Whispering Smith (Fenton) (as Murray Sinclaire); Blood on the Moon (Wise) (as Tate Biling)

1949

The Big City (Taurog) (as the Reverend Phillip A. Andrews);The Lady Gambles (Gordon) (as David Boothe); Tulsa(Heisler) (as Brad Brady)

1950

The Sundowners (Templeton) (as Wichita Kid)

1951

My Outlaw Brother (Nugent) (as Joe Warnder); When I Grow Up (Kanin) (as Father Reed); The Best of the Badmen(Russell) (as Matthew Fowler)

1952

Face to Face (Windust) (as Sheriff); Cloudburst (Searle)(as John)

1955

The Last Frontier (Anthony Mann) (as Col. Frank Marston)

1960

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Delbert Mann) (as Rubin)

1962

The Music Man (Da Costa) (as Professor Howard Hill)

1963

How the West Was Won (Hathaway) (as Roger Morgan);Island of Love (Da Costa) (as Steve Blair); All the Way Home (Segal) (as Jay)

1972

Junior Bonner (Peckinpah) (as Ace Bonner); Child's Play(Lumet) (as Joseph Dobbs)

1974

Mame (Saks) (as Beauregard)

1975

My Father's House (Segal—for TV)

1977

Semi-Tough (Ritchie) (as Big Ed Bookman)

1980

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (Rosenblum—for TV)(as Mr. Stranger)

1981

S.O.B. (Edwards) (as Dr. Irving Finegarten)

1982

Victor/Victoria (Edwards) (as Toddy); Rehearsal for Murder(Greene—for TV)

1984

The Last Starfighter (Castle) (as Centauri); The September Gun (Taylor—for TV)

1985

Finnegan, Begin Again (Joan Micklin Silver—for TV) (as Mike Finnegan)

1986

Outrage! (Grauman—for TV) (as Dennis Riordan)

Publications

By PRESTON: article—

Interview in American Classic Screen (Shawnee Mission, Kansas), September-October 1982.

On PRESTON: articles—

Preston, Catherine Craig, "The Movies and I," as told to John Springer, in Films in Review (New York), August-September 1957.

Current Biography 1958, New York, 1958.

Peper, W., "Robert Preston," in Films in Review (New York), March 1968.

Hurley, Joseph, in Films in Review (New York), August-September 1982.

Obituary in Variety (New York), 25 March 1987.

Obituary in Films and Filming (London), May 1987.

Briggs, C., "Remembering," in Hollywood Studio Magazine (Studio City), no. 3, 1989.

Robert Preston is best known for his stage and screen performances as "Professor" Harold Hill in The Music Man. His portrayal of the disarming confidence man underscores the paradox that informs his work: here and elsewhere, Preston's feather-light grace and sense of comedic timing belie his rugged and sturdy visage.

Preston was signed by Paramount in 1938, and first gained wide approval in Union Pacific. After serving in World War II, he was a success in The Macomber Affair. Tired of playing leads in only smaller pictures, Preston accepted an offer in 1951 to appear on Broadway, and he soon became known as a stage actor. In 1957, Preston arrived as "the music man," and won his first of two Tony Awards. Preston's success on Broadway renewed Hollywood's interest in him; he became known as one of the ablest character actors in Hollywood, and continued work on both coasts. In the 1980s, work with Blake Edwards brought Preston renewed acclaim. His performance as Toddy in Victor/Victoria brought Preston an Academy Award nomination.

There is always a touch of fraud about Preston's characters. They gain sympathy in direct proportion to the degree they acknowledge their own facade. Preston frequently emphasizes the function of acting in his roles, adding to his fraudulent image an element that colors and shades each performance. Preston's paradoxical image has been used in a variety of ways. Though often serving a humorous purpose, his double-sided quality can generate a deep tragic resonance: he dies playing a practical joke in Beau Geste, his whimsical attitude foreshadows his death in All the Way Home, and his delusions about aging impair his relationship with his wife and son in Junior Bonner.

Preston's persona has proved to be uncommonly malleable: witty and dashing in Beau Geste, devil-may-care in Northwest Mounted Police, romantic and rough-hewn in Reap the Wild Wind, heroic in Wake Island, stiff-backed and humorless in The Last Frontier, and explosively charming in The Music Man. The quality of his work ennobles even his contractual obligations and gives a sense of history to his career. When he gives a "Viking's Funeral" to Richard Mulligan in S.O.B. it reminds one of the funeral Preston gave Gary Cooper in Beau Geste. The difference between the two deny simple repetition; they represent significant variations of Preston's image and his incessant vitality.

—Frank Thompson, updated by Cynthia Baron

Preston [Meservey], Robert (1918–87), actor. Born in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, he was raised in California and studied at the theatre school of the Pasadena Playhouse. He made occasional West Coast appearances while becoming a film actor who specialized in tough men and Western villains. In New York, his versatility was displayed when he succeeded José Ferrer in 1951 in the revival of Twentieth Century and when he next portrayed Joe Ferguson in a 1952 revival of The Male Animal. After a series of failures Preston scored a hit as the duped husband Gil in Janus (1955). Broadway stardom finally came with his mesmerizing performance as con man Harold Hill in The Music Man (1957), followed by the title role in Ben Franklin in Paris (1964), King Henry II in The Lion in Winter (1966), husband Michael in I Do! I Do! (1966), and moviemaker Mack Sennett in Mack and Mabel (1974). His last Broadway appearance was as a replacement in another con‐man role, Foxwell J. Sly in Sly Fox (1977). Preston was a virile, handsome, full‐voiced leading man whose theatrical delivery and twinkle in his eye made him unique.