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Robert Wagner

Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Born: Feb 10, 1930 in Detroit, Michigan
Occupation: Actor, Cinematographer,
Active: '50s-2000s
Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
Career Highlights: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Sail a Crooked Ship, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
First Major Screen Credit: Halls of Montezuma (1950)
29 Videos for Robert Wagner
Man in the Chair (2007) Crazy in Alabama (1999) Indiscreet (1988)
Netherbeast Incorporated (2007) Fatal Error (1999) Midway (1976)
Everyone's Hero (2006) No Vacancy (1999) The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
Hoot (2006) Wild Things (1998) The Towering Inferno (1974)
Category 7: The End of the World (2005) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) Journey through Rosebud (1972)
The Fallen Ones (2005) Dancing in the Dark (1995) The Pink Panther (1963)
Hollywood Homicide (2003) Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) The Longest Day (1962)
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) The Player (1992) Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)
Sol Goode (2001) Delirious (1991) Let's Make It Legal (1951)
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) This Gun for Hire (1990)
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Biography:

One of the precious few actors of the pretty boy school to survive past the 1950s, Robert Wagner was the son of a Detroit steel executive. When his family moved to Los Angeles, Wagner's original intention of becoming a businessman took second place to his fascination with the film industry.

Thanks to his dad's connections, he was able to make regular visits to the big studios. Inevitably, a talent scout took notice of Wagner's boyish handsomeness, impressive physique, and easygoing charm. After making his unbilled screen debut in The Happy Years (1950), Wagner was signed by 20th Century Fox, which carefully built him up toward stardom.

He played romantic leads with ease, but it wasn't until he essayed the two scene role of a shellshocked war veteran in With a Song in My Heart (1952) that studio executives recognized his potential as a dramatic actor. He went on to play the title roles in Prince Valiant (1954) and The True Story of Jesse James (1956), and shocked his bobby-soxer fan following by effectively portraying a cold-blooded murderer in A Kiss Before Dying (1955).

In the early '60s, however, Wagner suffered a series of personal and professional reverses. His ideal marriage to actress Natalie Wood had dissolved, and his film career skidded to a stop after The Pink Panther (1964). Two years of unemployment followed before Wagner made a respectable comeback as star of the lighthearted TV espionage series It Takes a Thief (1968-1970).

For the rest of his career, Wagner would enjoy his greatest success on TV, first in the mid-'70s series Switch, then opposite Stefanie Powers in the internationally popular Hart to Hart, which ran from 1979 through 1983 and has since been sporadically revived in TV-movie form (a 1986 series, Lime Street, was quickly canceled due to the tragic death of Wagner's young co-star, Savannah Smith).

On the domestic front, Wagner was briefly wed to actress Marion Marshall before remarrying Natalie Wood in 1972; after Wood's death in 1981, Wagner found lasting happiness with his third wife, Jill St. John, a longtime friend and co-worker. Considered one of Hollywood's nicest citizens, Robert Wagner has continued to successfully pursue a leading man career into his sixties; he has also launched a latter-day stage career, touring with his Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Power in the readers' theater presentation {+Love Letters}.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.