Robert Beatty
Overview
- AKA Bob Beatty
- Occupation Actor
- Also Narrator
- Birthdate October 19, 1909
- Birthplace Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Education Toronto University and London Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
- Died March 3, 1992 (London, Great Britain)
- Character General George Carnaby
Biography
As a young man Robert Beatty was a student Toronto University in Canada. In his sparetime he worked as an amateur actor. After receiving a B.A. degree at the university he moved to London to study at London Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. His first film role was an extra and stand-in. During World War II Robert Beatty was a radio reporter and achieved fame through his eyewitness radio reports of the nightly London bombings.
After the war he continued his film career, often playing american-canadina characters. One of his favourite stage roles was as Harry Brock, a rude and crude American junk dealer, in Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday. He also played lots of detective characters in both radio, Philip O’Dell, and on TV, Dial 999. He got a big chanche to demonstrate is skill in Her Favourite Husband, where he played both a milquetoast British hubby and a slick Italian gangster. His most famous role is probably as Halvorsen in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He also played two seperate characters in Superman III and Superman IV.
Robert Beatty is also well-knowed for televiewers after parts in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (as Proculus) and as President Ronald Reagan in the 1987 PBS special Breakthrough at Reykajavik.
Selected films
- One of Our Aircraft Is Missing - 1942
- Suspected Person - 1943
- San Demetrio - 1947
- Against the Wind - 1948
- Quel Bandito Sono Io - 1949
- Twenty Questions Murder Mystery, The - 1950
- Captain Horatio Hornblower - 1951
- Wings of Danger - 1952
- Horse's Mouth, The - 1953
- Out of the Clouds - 1954
- Tarzan and the Lost Safari - 1957
- Amorous Mr. Prawn, The - 1962
- Die Todesstrahlen de Dr. Mabuse - 1964
- Bikini Paradise - 1965
- 2001: A Space Odyssey - 1968
- Where Eagles Dare - 1969
- Sitting Target - 1972
- Pope Joan - 1972
- Gathering Storm, The - 1974
- Spikes Gang, The - 1974
- Pink Panther Strikes Again, The - 1976
- Golden Rendezvous - 1977
- Unidentified Flying Oddball - 1979
- Amateur, The - 1981
- Superman III - 1983
- Labyrinth - 1986
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - 1987
- Return of Sam McCloud (TV) - 1989
Curiosa
- Robert Beatty has played the American presidents twice. First as Ronald Reagen in the 1987 PBS special Breakthrough at Reykajavik and then in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.