Robert Fuller is an American horse rancher and retired actor. He began his career on television, guest-starring primarily on Western programs, while appearing in several movies, including: The Brain from Planet Arous, Teenage Thunder (both in 1957), Return of the Seven (1966), Incident at Phantom Hill (1966), and The Hard Ride (1971). In his five decades of television, Fuller was known for his deep, raspy voice and was familiar to television viewers throughout the 1960s from his co-star roles on the popular 1960s Western series Laramie as Jess Harper and Wagon Train as Cooper Smith. He was also well known for his starring role as Dr. Kelly Brackett in the 1970s medical/action drama Emergency!
Early life
Fuller was born in Troy, New York, the only child of Elizabeth Lee, a dance instructor. Before his birth, Betty married Robert Simpson Sr., a Naval Academy officer. In 1939, at the age of 6, his family and he moved to Key West, Florida, where, already known by the nickname of "Buddy", he took the name Robert Simpson Jr. The early highlights of his life were acting and dancing. His parents owned a dancing school in Florida. His family also moved to Chicago, where they lived for a year, before moving back to Florida.
Simpson, Jr., as he was then still formally known, attended the Miami Military School for fifth and sixth grades, and Key West High School for ninth grade. He dropped out in 1948, at the age of 14, because he disliked school and was doing poorly there. In 1950, at the age of 16, he traveled with his family to Hollywood, California, where his first job was as a stunt man. He also worked at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, beginning as a doorman and working his way up to assistant manager by age 18. At the urging of friends, Simpson, Jr., joined the Screen Actors Guild, embarked on a career in acting, and changed his name to Robert Fuller, the name by which he was known at his most prominent.
Career
Early career
Fuller's first small role was as an extra in the 1952 film Above and Beyond. This part led to much extra work on many projects, one of which was in I Love Melvin. In 1953, he again had uncredited bit parts in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (which starred Marilyn Monroe) and the Doris Day classic, Calamity Jane. His career went on hold for service in the United States Army. He served a tour of duty in Korea and returned to the United States in 1955.
Although he had been considering giving up acting, Fuller, at the suggestion of his best friend, Chuck Courtney, attended Richard Boone's acting classes. Boone suggested that Fuller study under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse.
Fuller's first speaking role was in Friendly Persuasion in 1956, where he worked with his future Laramie co-star John Smith and another close friend, Doug McClure.
In the 1956 episode "The Comeback" in the religion anthology series, Crossroads, Fuller played the part of a former soldier. In 1957, Fuller was cast in his first major film role in Teenage Thunder. He said of it: { { blockquote|I always wanted to be in show business and with the help of my best buddy, Chuck Courtney, who was an actor then, he helped get me my first starring role in a movie called Teenage Thunder. It was a break for me, and since Chuck had the pull at the time to get the director, Paul Helmick, use me for the bad guy and not another actor that he really wanted. It was the gateway to many other roles, which led to the Laramie series and so on and so forth.|author=Robert Fuller, emergencyfans.com}}
Television work in the late 1950s and 1960s
Fuller became an immensely popular character actor, guest-starring in dozens of television programs including Buckskin, The Big Valley, The Californians, The Restless Gun, The Lawless Years, U.S. Marshal, Panic!, M Squad, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Monroes, and Lux Playhouse. He appeared in the series Strange Intruder as a villain who dies in the third episode.