Robert Horton (actor)
Born Meade Howard Horton, Jr.
July 29, 1924
Los Angeles
Died March 9, 2016 (aged 91)
Los Angeles
Occupation Television, film, stage actor, singer
Meade Howard Horton, Jr. (July 29, 1924 – March 9, 2016), known as Robert Horton, was an American television, stage actor and singer.
One of two sons, Horton was born as Meade Howard Horton, Jr. on July 29, 1924, in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of Meade Howard Horton and Chetta McMurrin.
Horton said that he never felt he fitted into the appropriate Mormon household, for being the hotheaded child that he was. As a little boy, he also survived many surgeries such as: hernia and an enlarged kidney. Horton attended California Military Institute in Perris, where he played football.
After graduation from the military school, in 1943, at age 19, he was enlisted in the Coast Guard, but was medically discharged, because of his kidney. (The accuracy of the preceding graduation information might be questioned. The page linked to the citation does not name the school, and a document on the California Military Institute’s website indicates that it began operation in 2003.
In contrast, the book From Small Screen to Vinyl: A Guide to Television Stars Who Made Records, 1950-2000 by Bob Leszczak says of Horton, “He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1942”).
In 1945, a chance encounter with the talent scout led to an uncredited part in Lewis Milestone’s World War II film A Walk in the Sun (1945). He first studied dramatics at the University of Miami but later changed schools and graduated cum laude from UCLA.[ He relocated from California to New York City, where he worked as an unfamiliar struggling actor, before returning to California. At age 28, Horton signed a contract with MGM, appearing in films. It was there where he met unfamiliar younger actors, Robert Fuller and James Drury, who both became Horton’s lifelong friends, for 62 years, from 1954 until his passing in 2016.
Horton’s experience on stage included work with the American Theatre Wing in New York City, where he was the “resident leading man.” From that, he was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, where he “appeared in numerous films.” His “first major TV role” was on Ford Theatre in the episode “Portrait of Lydia”, on December 16, 1954.
In his six decades of television, Horton became known for his voice, who was also most noted for his role, from 1957 to 1962, of the frontier scout Flint McCullough in the NBC Western television series, Wagon Train. His co-stars were Ward Bond, John McIntire, Terry Wilson, and Frank McGrath. He eventually quit the series to pursue a career in musical theater.
His Wagon Train role was replaced by that of Robert Fuller as the scout Cooper Smith, and thereafter the series moved to ABC. Fuller, a veteran of the western series Laramie, resembled Horton, and the two actors coincidentally shared the same birthday, albeit nine years apart.
Horton played Drake McHugh, Ronald Reagan’s role in the television version of Kings Row (1955), which also featured Jack Kelly, and ran for seven episodes as part of the Warner Bros. Presents series, rotating with a television version of Casablanca and Cheyenne, starring Clint Walker, the first television western in a 60-minute format.
The ruggedly handsome Horton made dozens of appearances in movies and television shows between 1951 and 1989, including a small role in the film Bright Road starring Dorothy Dandridge, an episode of Ray Milland’s CBS sitcom, Meet Mr. McNutley, and on the syndicated Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield. Horton played Corporal Tom Vaughn in the 1956 episode “False Prophet” of the religion anthology series, Crossroads.
Horton appeared on seven episodes of the anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including memorably as a tennis-playing bookie and blackmailer opposite Betsy von Furstenberg in “The Disappearing Trick”, directed by Arthur Hiller. He was cast as Danny Barnes in the episode “No Place to Hide” of the CBS anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, on the NBC interview program Here’s Hollywood, and NBC’s anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show. He also appeared several times on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Horton is also remembered for his offbeat role as a cowboy amnesiac in his 1965-1966 ABC television series A Man Called Shenandoah. Horton even took a turn in daytime soap operas, having played the part of Whit McColl from 1983 to 1984 on CBS’s As the World Turns. In 1966, he starred in “The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones”, the first Western made specifically for television and simultaneous distribution to cinemas in Europe. It was made by MGM and co-starred Sal Mineo and Diane Baker.
He went on to perform for many years in theaters and nightclubs all over America, and in Australia as a singer (sometimes with his wife, the former Marilynn Bradley). In 1963, producer David Merrick hired him as the male lead in the musical version of N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker (entitled 110 in the Shade),[5] in the part played on the screen by Burt Lancaster. The musical, which boasted a score by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, ran for 330 performances on Broadway.
In the 1960s, Horton made two 45 RPM singles on the Columbia Records label: The Very Thought of You/Hey There and King of the Road/Julie.
Personal life
Horton married actress Barbara Ruick (daughter of actress Lurene Tuttle) August 22, 1953, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Horton was an accomplished pilot and aircraft owner. According to a “Plane and Pilot” profile: “His three greatest thrills were his first solo flight, a performance before Queen Elizabeth II, and being featured on Ralph Edwards’ This Is Your Life. His frequent co-pilot was his French Poodle, “Jamie”.
Horton was the recipient of several lifetime achievement awards for television, including the prestigious Golden Boot in 2004, and also the Cowboy Spirit Award at the National Festival of the West.
On December 31, 1960, he married actress Marilynn Bradley, who limited her professional appearances on stage, with him. Horton and his wife lived in Encino, California for 55 years in the same home until 2015. Following his 85th birthday in 2009, Horton announced, through his publicist, that he would no longer be making any personal appearances because he had tired of traveling. In 2014, Horton celebrated his 90th birthday, on which he received the Western Legend Award.
Death
Horton died of natural causes on March 9, 2016, at the age of 91, in a rehabilitation clinic in Los Angeles, California. According to his niece, he was injured in a fall in November 2015, and was placed in hospice care. At his request, he didn’t have a funeral. His remains were cremated.
Selected filmography
A Walk In The Sun (1946)
Arena (1953)
Prisoner of War (1954)
Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
The Man Is Armed (1956)
The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones (1966, TV film)
The Green Slime (1968)
The Spy Killer (1969, TV film)
Foreign Exchange (1970, TV film)
Red River (1988, TV film)