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Born · October 15, 1920
Died · January 25, 2003 (82 years old)
Known For: Acting
Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Robert Rockwell was an American stage, film, radio and television actor. He is best known for playing the handsome, but awkward biology teacher Philip Boynton in the radio and television sitcom Our Miss Brooks opposite Eve Arden. A native of Lake Bluff, Illinois, Rockwell studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, from which he obtained a master's degree. During World War II he enlisted in the US Navy for four years serving in Washington D.C. Dramatic roles often eluded him, however, after beginning his career as a contract player for Republic Studios he appeared, over his almost 50-year acting career, in more than 350 television episodes and, on stage, opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and with Ginger Rogers during the 1960s in a San Diego production of Whitfield Cook's play A More Perfect Union. He appeared in the first Superman television show episode as Clark Kent's father, Jor-El in 1952. He appeared in a 1959 Perry Mason episode "The case of the Deadly Toy" as love interest to the defendant Claire Allison as Dick Benedict. He starred in the 1961 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Misguided Missile" as an Air Force officer court-martialled on a murder charge. He later starred in the 1962 Perry Mason episodes "The Case of the Lurid Letter" as Everett Rixby, a high school principal, and the murderer Cole B. Troy in "The Case of the Shapely Shadow". He also appeared as Ed Purvis in the 1965 episode Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Candy Queen". Rockwell starred in his own ABC western-themed television series, The Man from Blackhawk in the 1959-1960 season. Rockwell was cast as the Blackhawk Insurance Company's key investigator, Sam Logan, who is assigned to weed out fraud in the payment of claims. He also played Sam Thompson in Thompson's Ghost, Tom Bennett in The Bill Cosby Show[4]:106 and Officer Russo in Adam-12. In 1967 he played a littering tourist in the Lassie episode "Lassie's Litter Bit", an iconic episode which earned a trip for Lassie to the White House to shake hands with then First Lady "Ladybird" Johnson who had used the famous collie in her Keep America Beautiful Campaign. Rockwell was a founding member of the California Artists Radio Theatre. He played standard leads in a couple of anti-Communist-era features, including Republic's The Red Menace, in which he is cast as a returning veteran of World War II, who is duped by communists. Later in his career, he appeared on episodes of Petticoat Junction, Growing Pains, and Beverly Hills, 90210. His appearances in commercials and voiceovers totaled more than 200, most notably as the armchair grandfather treating his grandson to a piece of candy in the 1995 version of the Werthers Original candy spot.
3.5
1995
Mr. Cochran · (1 episode)
6.1
1992
Mr. Stewart
8.7
1991
(1 episode)
7.4
1990
0.0
1987
Wally Overmier · (8 episodes)
6.5
1985
Ralph Flagg · (1 episode)
7.2
1984
John Harrison · (1 episode)
5.2
1984
5.0
1983
(2 episodes)
7.2
1982
Giles Taylor · (1 episode)
5.6
1981
0.0
1981
Parker
4.3
1981
(1 episode)
6.5
1981
Doctor · (1 episode)
6.8
1979
(1 episode)
7.2
1979
(3 episodes)
7.0
1978
Mitchell · (1 episode)
6.8
1978
(1 episode)
6.1
1977
Harrison · (1 episode)
6.7
1976
(1 episode)
7.1
1972
Will Thorne
0.0
1970
Tom Bennett · (1 episode)
5.0
1969
Dean Chalmers (archive footage)
6.0
1969
Dean Chalmers
0.0
1968
Jack Scott · (1 episode)
6.9
1968
Chief Danvers
6.3
1968
(1 episode)
0.0
1966
(1 episode)
7.3
1965
Pastor
0.0
1965
Agent (uncredited)
0.0
1964
(1 episode)
5.9
1963
Tom Bennett · (1 episode)
7.1
1962
(1 episode)
0.0
1961
(1 episode)
0.0
1960
(1 episode)
5.0
1960
(37 episodes)
5.0
1959
(1 episode)
5.3
1958
Phillip Hampton · (1 episode)
6.0
1958
(1 episode)
4.8
1958
Ben Hanson
0.0
1958
(1 episode)
6.8
1957
Dick Benedict · (1 episode)
7.7
1957
Maj. Jerry Reynolds · (1 episode)
7.7
1957
Cole B. Troy · (1 episode)
7.7
1957
Everett Rixby · (1 episode)
7.7
1957
Ed Purvis · (1 episode)
7.7
1957
(1 episode)
5.0
1956
Phillip 'Phil' Boynton
6.2
1956
(2 episodes)
4.5
1955
Mr. Philips · (1 episode)
6.5
1955
Prof. Amberson Adams · (1 episode)
5.0
1955
Dolph Randolph · (1 episode)
5.0
1955
(5 episodes)
6.1
1954
Jeb Stewart · (1 episode)
6.2
1953
Forest Ranger at Crash Site (uncredited)
6.8
1953
Philip Boynton · (130 episodes)
7.3
1952
(1 episode)
3.5
1952
John Ransome
4.8
1952
Jor-El (uncredited) · (1 episode)
6.7
1952
(2 episodes)
6.0
1951
(uncredited)
4.9
1951
Lt. Bill Doyle
5.9
1951
Mark Hampton
6.0
1950
Police Lt. Carroll
6.5
1950
Police Lt. Bill Peters
0.0
1950
Dr. Walter Phillips
0.0
1950
Gates
4.0
1950
Dr. Ross Carrington
4.8
1950
Kip Armitage III
0.0
1950
Detective Lt. James 'Jim' Webster
5.2
1950
Dist. Atty. Devron
5.8
1949
Ron Peterson
6.0
1949
Bill Jones
4.1
1949
Eddie
6.4
1948
Self · (1 episode)
6.6
1948