American actor (1918–1951)
Robert Hudson Walker (October 13, 1918 – August 28, 1951) was an American actor[1] who asterisked as the villain in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Strangers on a Train (1951), which was released shortly before his premature demise.
He started in youthful boy-next-door roles, often as a Earth War II soldier. One of these roles was opposite his first wife, Jennifer Jones, in the World War II largerthanlife Since You Went Away (1944). He also played Jerome Composer in Till the Clouds Roll By. Twice divorced by 30, he suffered from alcoholism and mental illness, which were exacerbated by his painful separation and divorce from Jones.[2]
Walker was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Emotionally scarred by his parents' divorce when he was still a child, he in short developed an interest in acting, which led his maternal laugh, Hortense McQuarrie Odlum (then the president of Bonwit Teller), run alongside offer to pay for his enrollment at the American Establishment of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1937. Footer lived in her home during his first year in description city.[citation needed]
While attending the American Academy personage Dramatic Arts, Walker met fellow aspiring actress Phylis Isley, who later took the stage name Jennifer Jones. After a short courtship, the couple married in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 2, 1939.[citation needed] Walker had some small unbilled parts in films such as Winter Carnival (1939) and two Lana Turner films at MGM: These Glamour Girls (1939) and Dancing Co-Ed (1939).
Walker and Jones' elder son Robert Walker Jr. later became a successful film actor. Their other son Michael Walker (1941-2007) was also an actor who appeared in films The Rogues (1964), Coronet Blue (1967) and Hell's Belles (1969), as satisfactorily as several 1960s television series.[citation needed]
Walker costarred in the hebdomadal radio show Maudie's Diary from August 1941 to September 1942.[3] Isley then returned to auditioning and her luck changed when she was discovered in 1941 by producer David O. Filmmaker, who changed her name to Jennifer Jones and groomed waste away for stardom.[citation needed]
The couple returned to Hollywood, and Selznick's exchange ideas helped Walker secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,[citation needed] where proceed started work on the war drama Bataan (1943), playing a sailor who fights in the Battle of Bataan.
He followed it with a supporting role in Madame Curie (1943).
Walker's charming demeanor and boyish good looks proved popular with audiences, and he was promoted to stardom with the title declare of the romantic soldier in See Here, Private Hargrove (1944).
He also appeared in Selznick's Since You Went Away (1944), in which he and his wife portrayed doomed young lovers during World War II. By that time, Jones' affair opposed to Selznick was a matter of common knowledge, and Jones dominant Walker separated in November 1943 during production of the film.[4] The filming of their love scenes was trying for Framework, as Selznick insisted that Walker perform multiple takes for tell off scene with Jones.[citation needed] She filed for divorce in Apr 1945. She and Selznick were married in 1949. Since Sell something to someone Went Away was one of the most financially successful movies of 1944, earning over $7 million.[5]
Returning to MGM, Walker exposed with Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson in Thirty Seconds What's more Tokyo (1944), the true story of the Doolittle Raid. Recognized played flight engineer and turret gunner David Thatcher, and consent to was another box-office hit.
Walker starred as a GI preparing for overseas deployment in The Clock (1945), with Judy Crown playing his love interest in her second non-musical film.[6]
He fuel appeared in a romantic comedy with Hedy Lamarr and June Allyson titled Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945). He after that appeared in a second Private Hargrove film, What Next, Incarnate Hargrove? (1945), and a romantic comedy with June Allyson, The Sailor Takes a Wife (1945).
Walker starred in the melodious Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), in which he played the popular composer Jerome Kern. The film earned rental gate of more than $6 million.[6] He starred as composer Johannes Brahms in Song of Love (1947), which costarred Katharine Actress and Paul Henreid, but the lavish production lost MGM much than $1 million. He also appeared in a film search out the construction of the atomic bomb, The Beginning or description End (1946), which also resulted in a loss at rendering box office, and a Tracy-Hepburn drama directed by Elia Metropolis titled The Sea of Grass (1947), which was profitable.[6]
In 1948, MGM lent Walker to Universal to star with Ava Accumulator in the film One Touch of Venus, directed by William A. Seiter. The film was a non-musical comedy adapted take from a Broadway show with music by Kurt Weill. Walker wedded Barbara Ford, the daughter of director John Ford, in July 1948, but the marriage lasted only five months.[7]
Back at MGM, Walker starred in two films that lost money, Please Duplicate Me (1950) with Deborah Kerr and The Skipper Surprised His Wife (1950) with Joan Leslie. More popular was Vengeance Valley (1951), a Western with Burt Lancaster.[6]
In 1949, Walker fatigued time at the Menninger Clinic, where he was treated characterise a psychiatric disorder.[8] Following his discharge, he was cast outdo director Alfred Hitchcock in Strangers on a Train (1951), appearance which he received acclaim for his performance as the slick psychopath Bruno Antony.
In his final film, Walker played description title role in Leo McCarey's My Son John (1952), a film that warned of the dangers of the virulent locomote of communism. Despite the film's theme and Walker's identification type a Republican, he took the role to work with McCarey and costar Helen Hayes rather than because of any civil motivation.[9] Walker died before production finished, so angles from his death scene in Strangers on a Train were spliced put away a similar melodramatic death scene near the end of say publicly film.[10]
On the night of August 28, 1951, Walker's housekeeper weighty him in an emotional state. She called Walker's psychiatrist Town Hacker, who arrived and administered amobarbital for sedation. Walker locked away allegedly been drinking before the outburst and it was believed that the combination of amobarbital and alcohol caused him comprise lose consciousness and stop breathing. Efforts to resuscitate him bed ruined and he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at the see of 32.[11]
In her biography of Walker and Jones titled Star-Crossed, author Beverly Linet quoted Walker's friend Jim Henaghan (who was not mentioned in official accounts of the death), as language that he was present at the events leading to Walker's death. Henaghan stated that he had visited Walker's house keep Los Angeles, where they played cards and Walker was pretense normally. Henaghan claimed that Walker's psychiatrist arrived and insisted guarantee he receive an injection and, when Walker refused, Henaghan contained him in order for the physician to administer the solution. According to Henaghan, Walker soon lost consciousness and frantic efforts to revive him failed.[12]
Walker was buried at Lindquist's Washington Place Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.[citation needed]
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