Robert Preston

Robert Preston
in This Gun for Hire (1942)
Born	Robert Preston Meservey June 8, 1918(1918-06-08) Newton, Massachusetts
Died	March 21, 1987 (aged 68) Montecito, California
Years active	1938–1985
Spouse(s)	Catherine Craig (1940-1987) (his death)

Robert Preston (June 8, 1918–March 21, 1987) was an American stage and film actor.

Early life

Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea) and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express.^[1][2] After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He would later serve in the United States Army Air Forces as an intelligence officer with the U.S. 9th Air Force during World War II.

In 1940, he married actress Catherine Craig, to whom he remained married until his death.

Career

Preston appeared in many Hollywood films, predominantly Westerns, but is probably best remembered for his portrayal of "Professor" Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man (1962). He won a Tony Award for his performance in the original Broadway production (1957). He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on July 21, 1958.^[3]. In 1965 he was the male part of a duo-lead musical, "I Do! I Do!" with Mary Martin and in 1974, he starred opposite Bernadette Peters in Jerry Herman's Broadway musical "Mack and Mabel" as Mack Sennett, the famous silent film director.

In 1961, Preston was asked to make a recording as part of a program by the President's Council on Physical Fitness to get schoolchildren to do more daily exercise. The song, "Chicken Fat," written by Meredith Willson and performed by Preston with full orchestral accompaniment, was distributed to schools across the nation and played for students in calisthenics every morning. The song later became a surprise novelty hit and a part of many baby-boomers' childhood memories.

In 1979 and 1980, Preston portrayed determined family patriarch Hadley Chisholm in the CBS western miniseries, The Chisholms. Rosemary Harris played his wife, Minerva. The Preston character died in the ninth of the thirteen episodes of the program. Other co-stars were Ben Murphy, Lance Kerwin, Brett Cullen, and James Van Patten. In the story line, the Chisholms lost their land in Virginia by fraud and left for California to begin a new life.

Although he was not known for his singing voice, Preston appeared in several other stage and film musicals, notably Mame (1974) and Victor/Victoria (1982), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His last role in a theatrical film was in The Last Starfighter (1984), in which he played intergalactic con man/military recruiter "Centauri." Preston said that he based the character of Centauri on Professor Harold Hill. He also starred in the HBO 1985 movie "Finnegan Begin Again" along with Mary Tyler Moore. His final role was in the TV movie Outrage! (1986).

Preston died of lung cancer in 1987, at the age of 68.

Work

Stage productions

• The Male Animal (May 15, 1952 - Jan 31, 1953)
• Men of Distinction (Apr 30, 1953 - May 2, 1953)
• His and Hers (Jan 7, 1954 - Mar 13, 1954)
• The Magic and the Loss (Apr 9, 1954 - May 1, 1954)
• The Tender Trap (Oct 13, 1954 - Jan 8, 1955)
• Janus (Nov 24, 1955 - Jun 30, 1956)
• The Hidden River (Jan 23, 1957 - Mar 16, 1957)
• The Music Man (Dec 19, 1957 - Apr 15, 1961)
• Too True to be Good (Mar 12, 1963 - Jun 1, 1963)
• Nobody Loves an Albatross (Dec 19, 1963 - Jun 20, 1964)
• Ben Franklin in Paris (Oct 27, 1964 - May 1, 1965)
• The Lion in Winter (Mar 3, 1966 - May 21, 1966)
• I Do! I Do! (December 5, 1966 - June 15, 1968)
• Mack & Mabel (Oct 6, 1974 - Nov 30, 1974)
• Sly Fox (Dec 14, 1976 - Feb 19, 1978)

Filmography

References

External links

• Robert Preston at Find a Grave
• Robert Preston at the Internet Broadway Database
• Robert Preston (actor) at the Internet Movie Database
• An online MP3 recording of "Chicken Fat"
• Photographs and literature