Robert Preston (actor)
Robert Preston ( born June 8, 1918 in Newton Highland, Massachusetts, † March 21, 1987 in Montecito, California ) was an American actor.
Life
Preston, who played several musical instruments, came for the first time in high school in Los Angeles in contact with the stage. He then played theater in Pasadena with later stars such as Dana Andrews and Victor Mature. For the film, he was spotted by Cecil B. DeMille. Directed by William A. Wellman, he starred alongside Gary Cooper and Ray Milland in the adventure classics Three Foreign Legion ( 1939). Also under DeMille and again with Cooper as a partner in 1940, he turned Scarlet Horseman ( Northwest Mounted Police ). His most famous film with DeMille was pirate in the Caribbean Sea. The Second World War interrupted his career.
Back from Europe, he played again with much success on Broadway. His final breakthrough he experienced in his role as Professor Hill in the musical The Music Man, for which he won a Tony Award. Also in the film version in 1962, he took over this Part 1974, he starred opposite Lucille Ball in the film adaptation of the Jerry Herman musical Mame on.
In 1982, he starred opposite Julie Andrews in Blake Edwards comedy Victor / Victoria gay entertainer Toddy, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. In the same year he received the Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
His last film appearance was Preston 1984 in the science fiction film The Last Starfighter, as lovable alien Centauri - a tribute to his role as Professor Hill.
Preston died in 1987 from lung cancer.