Tag: television actors

Robert Reed: Film History Series

Amos Carr, “Robert Reed”, circa 1955-1960, Gelatin Silver Print, Collection of Jan Green

Born at Highland Park, Illinois in October of 1932, Robert Reed was an American film and television actor who is best known for his role as the patriarch in American Broadcast Company’s 1969 sitcom “The Brady Bunch”. A three-time Primetime Emmy nominee for his television work, Reed was also a stage actor who performed in Shakespearean productions.

Robert Reed, birth name John Robert Rietz  Jr, was the only child of Helen Teaverbaugh and John Robert Rietz, a government employee who was stationed throughout the Mid-West. Reed received his elementary education in Des Plaines, Illinois until 1939 at which time the family moved to Navasota, Texas. The family relocated twice more before settling in Muskogee, Oklahoma where Reed’s father worked at a turkey and cattle farm. Reed was a member of the local 4-H agricultural club and exhibited the calves he had raised; however, his primary interests laid in music and theater.

While attending Muskogee’s Central High School, Reed participated in its theater productions; he also worked as a radio announcer at local radio stations for which he wrote and produced dramas. Enrolled in 1950 as a drama student at Northwestern University, Reed appeared as a lead character in eight plays, several of which where under the direction of the university’s celebrated drama coach Alvina Krause. After graduating, he traveled to London where he studied for a term at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Reed returned to the United States and performed in summer stock productions in Pennsylvania and later joined New York City’s off-broadway ensemble “The Shakespeare-wrights” and Chicago’s Studebaker Theater Company. 

In the late 1950’s, Robert Reed moved to Los Angeles to continue his acting career. His first guest-appearance in an 1959 episode of the television family comedy “Father Knows Best” led to guest roles on the sci-fi series “Men into Space” and the western series “Lawman”. Reed’s first credited film role was Johnny Randall in director Ralph Brooke’s 1961 horror thriller “Bloodlust!” for Crown International Pictures. His first starring television role was defense lawyer Kenneth Preston, playing alongside actor E. G. Marshall, in the CBS popular courtroom drama “The Defenders”, a twenty-two time nominee for the Primetime Emmy Awards and winner of two Outstanding Drama Series Awards. 

While filming “The Defenders” in its 1964 third-season, Reed made his Broadway stage debut in the role of Paul Bratter, replacing Robert Redford, in Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park”. In 1968, he performed in the Booth Theater production of playwright Samuel Taylor’s comedy “Avanti!” and appeared in director Robert Wise’s biographical musical “Star!”, which starred Julie Andrews as the British performer Gertrude Lawrence. In the latter part of the 1960s, Reed had guest roles in such series as the sitcom “Family Affair”, the detective shows “Ironside” and “The Mod Squad”, and episodes of the anthology series “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater”. 

Due to his successful performances in “Barefoot in the Park”, Robert Reed was signed in 1968 to both Paramount Pictures and the American Broadcast Company (ABC). Paramount gave him the lead role as the patriarch Mike Brady in series’ creator Sherwood Schwartz’s new sitcom “The Brady Bunch”, a family comedy in which a widowed man with three boys marries a woman with three girls. This five-season series starred Florence Henderson as Carol Brady, the wife, and comedic actress Ann Bradford Davis as the maid Alice Nelson. A favorite series of the 1970s, “The Brady Bunch” went into syndication and spawned several other series, two television reunion films, and two parody films. 

Throughout the production of “The Brady Bunch”, Reed was not excited about the role. He often felt that the show was beneath his level of training as a serious Shakespearean actor. Reed frequently made suggestions in an effort to make the sitcom more realistic; however, most of these were ignored. Occasionally Schwartz, now executive producer, would allow Reed to direct an episode in order to relieve the tension between them. Schwartz eventually decided to replace Reed for the sixth season of the series but the show was canceled before production. Despite his problems with Schwartz, Reed became friends with his co-stars Florence Henderson and Susan Olsen who played Carol Brady’s daughter, Cindy. 

Robert Reed, while filming “The Brady Bunch”, also had a recurring role of Lieutenant Adam Tobias on the Columbia Broadcasting Company’s detective television series “Mannix” which starred Mike Connors. He appeared in three to five shows on each of the eight “Mannix” seasons. Beginning in 1974, Reed made guest star appearances on series and movies produced for television. His 1975 role as doctor Pat Caddison, who eventually disclosed an identity as transgender in a two-part episode of “Medical Center”, earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Reed also appeared in the 1975 “Secret Night Caller”; the 1976 “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble” and “Rich Man, Poor Man”; and the 1977 miniseries “Roots”, among others. 

Reed returned to the character of Mike Brady for several spin-offs and sequels throughout his remaining career. This included the 1976 variety show “The Brady Bunch Hour” which allowed him opportunity to sing and dance; the 1988 television film “A Very Brady Christmas”; the 1989 episode, entitled “A Very Brady Episode”, for the NBC sitcom “Day by Day”; and finally the 1990 short-lived drama series “The Bradys”. Reed’s last onscreen appearance was the April 1992 episode “Ain’t Misbehavin’” for the CBS crime drama “Jake and the Fatman” which starred William Conrad.  

In the last years of his life, Robert Reed taught classes on Shakespeare at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also performed alongside actress Betsy Palmer on the touring stage production of Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr.’s 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist “Love Letters”. Tested positive for HIV, Robert Reed passed away from a rare form of colorectal cancer at the age of fifty-nine in Pasadena, California in May of 1992. He is interred at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois. 

Notes: Robert Reed was married for five years to fellow Northwestern University student Marilyn Rosenberger. Before the divorce in 1959, they had one child, a daughter Karen Rietz. Reed kept the fact that he was gay a close secret, as public knowledge of his sexual orientation would have damaged his career and caused the demise of “The Brady Bunch” show. Several years after his death, Reed’s “Brady Bunch” co-stars, notably Florence Henderson and Barry Williams who had the role of Greg Brady, confirmed Reed’s sexual orientation and revealed that the entire cast and crew of “The Brady Bunch” had been aware of it at the time of production.

Northwestern University drama coach Alvina Krause was the life-long partner of Bloomsburg State College physical education teacher Lucy McCammon. After her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1963, Krause gave private instruction for master-drama classes as late as 1977. She moved to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1971, where she shared a house with McCammon. Beginning in 1978, Krause was the artistic advisor, and later the artistic director, of the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble founded by her former master-class students. Alvina Krause passed away on the 31st of December in 1981 at the age of eighty-eight; her partner Lucy McCammon passed on the 19th of December in the same year.

A short biography of Robert Reed can be found at the Oklahoma Historical Society site located at: https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=RE041

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Robert Reed in Barefoot in the Park”, Gelatin Silver Print, New York Public Library

Second Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Robert Reed”, circa 1950s, Gelatin Silver Print, Collection of Jan Green

Third Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Robert Reed”, Date Unknown, Autographed Studio Publicity Photo, Gelatin Silver Print, 20.3 x 25.4 cm, Private Collection

Fourth Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed”, 1961, “The Defenders” Publicity Photo, Gelatin Silver Print, CBS Television

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Robert Reed”, 1990, CBS Television Promotion Photo, Gelatin Silver Print, 20.3 x 25.4 cm, Private Collection

Richard Cromwell: Film History Series

Photographer Unknown, “Richard Cromwell”, circa 1930s, Publicity Photo Shoot, Columbia Pictures

Born in Long Beach, California in January of 1910, Richard Cromwell was an American film, stage and television actor. Hardly recognized today for his film work, he enjoyed a rapid rise to stardom that, accompanied with radio and personal appearances, culminated in a White House invitation from President Herbert Hoover.

Born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh, the second of five children to inventor Roy Ralph Radabaugh and Euphame Belle Stocking, Richard Cromwell received his initial education at the Long Beach public schools. In 1918, his father died suddenly, one of the many who perished from the Spanish Flu pandemic. As an artistically creative teenager, Cromwell enrolled through a scholarship at Los Angeles’s Chouinard Art Institute. His oil painting and mask-making were impressive and led to commissions from such film legends as Colleen Moore, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Beatrice Lillie, and Greta Garbo. 

Cromwell opened his own art studio in Hollywood; however, his interest in the theater eventually led him into an acting career. He initially worked as a scenery set designer for community theater productions and quickly acquired acting roles. Cromwell’s first film role was a walk-on cowboy in the “Song of the Dawn” number of directors John Murray Anderson and Walter Lantz’s 1930 “King of Jazz” for Universal Pictures. Encouraged by friends, he auditioned for lead role in Columbia Studio’s 1930 remake of Henry King’s 1921  classic silent film “Tol’able David”. Despite the lack of a resume, Cromwell won the role and, given the screen name Richard Cromwell by Columbia’s Harry Cohn, was heavily supported by the studio’s publicity department.

Richard Cromwell’s successful role as David, played alongside actors Noah Beery Sr. and John Carradine, led to a multi-year contract with Columbia Studio. Between 1931 and 1932, he had roles in three films for Columbia and one film “The Age of Consent” for RKO Radio Pictures. With the assistance of award-winning actress Marie Dressler, Cromwell was given the lead role opposite Dressler in Metro Goldwyn Mayers’ 1932 comedy-drama “Emma”. Now an actor in demand, he began a series of roles as the sensitive hero in predominately melodramatic films such as Cecil B. DeMille’s 1933 “This Day and Age” and Albert S. Rogell’s 1934 “Among the Missing”. 

In 1935, Cromwell appeared in seven films, two of which were particularly noteworthy. In director George Marshall’s 1935 drama, “Life Begins at 40”, he played ex-convict Lee Austin opposite bank manager Kenesaw H. Clark, played by actor and social commentator Will Rogers in his final film role. For director Henry Hathaway’s 1935 adventure film “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer”, Cromwell played the role of the young Lieutenant Donald Stone alongside actors Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning the Assistant Director Award with nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. 

Departing from films for a period, Richard Cromwell made his Broadway stage debut in the 1936 “So Proudly We Hail”. As his popularity in films began to fade, he acted in supporting roles in William Wyler’s 1938 “Jezebel”, playing opposite Henry Fonda and Bette Davis, and John Ford’s 1939 biographical drama “Young Mr. Lincoln”, playing the defendant Matt Clay who is represented by lawyer Abe Lincoln, played by Henry Fonda. In the early 1940s, Cromwell acted in several enemy agent and crime films including the 1942 “Baby Face Morgan” until his service with the United States Coast Guard during the last two years of World War II.

After his return to California at the war’s end, Cromwell found roles to be sparse and retired from film work. His last acting role was in Edward L. Cahn’s 1948 crime drama “Bungalow 13” for 20th Century Fox which starred British detective-actor Tom Conway. By chance, Cromwell met promising actress Angela Lansbury, sixteen years his junior, with whom he eloped and married in September of 1945. The marriage was short, however; they separated within a few months and were divorced by the end of the year. The main cause was Cromwell’s latent homosexuality, verified years later by Lansbury. After the divorce, Lansbury and Cromwell maintained a sincere friendship until his death. 

Richard Cromwell settled comfortably into his artwork. Retuning to his birth name of Roy Radabaugh, he built a studio on his property and became an established potter and ceramicist, especially admired for his creative tile designs. Cromwell signed in July of 1960 with producer Maury Dexter for 20th Century Fox’s production “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come” which starred singer Jimmie Rodgers. Diagnosed with liver cancer a few months later, Cromwell withdrew from production and was replaced by character actor Chill Wells. 

After a career that spanned thirty-nine films, Richard Cromwell died from liver cancer in Hollywood on the eleventh of October in 1960 at the age of fifty. His body is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California. Cromwell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame within walking distance of Angela Lansbury’s star. Materials relating to his radio performances are housed at the Thousand Oaks Library. Cromwell’s memorabilia and ceramic work are housed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills. 

Notes: Roy Ralph Radabaugh, Richard Cromwell’s father, was an inventor whose claim to fame was his patented invention, the “Amusement Park Swing” ride, also known as the “Monoflyer”. Variations of the amusement park ride can still be seen in use at most carnivals today. 

Top Insert Image: George Hoyningen-Huene, “Richard Cromwell”, 1934, Gelatin Silver Print, Private Collection

Second Insert Image: Roy William Neill, “That’s My Boy”, 1932, Cinematographer Joseph H, August, Columbia Pictures

Third Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, and Gary Cooper”, Film Location of “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer”, 1934, Director Henry Hathaway, Cinematography Charles Lang, Paramount Pictures

Fourth Insert Image: Henry Hathaway, “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer”, 1935, Cinematography Charles Lang, Paramount Pictures

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Richard Cromwell”, circa 1935-1950, Publicity Photo