Dewey Robinson
Robinson in At War with the Army (1950)
Born(1898-08-17)August 17, 1898
New Haven, Connecticut U.S.
DiedDecember 11, 1950(1950-12-11) (aged 52)
Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1931–1950
Spouse
Lois Wood
​
​
(m. 1928)​

Dewey Robinson (August 17, 1898 – December 11, 1950) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 250 films made between 1931 and 1952.

Career

Dewey Robinson was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1898, and made his Broadway debut in 1922[1] in the melodrama The Last Warning, which ran for seven months and 238 performances.[2] Several years later, in 1925, he appeared in a comedy, Solid Ivory,[3] his final Broadway production.

In 1931, Robinson, a big, barrel-chested man at 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) who easily conveyed physical menace, made his first film when he played a waiter in George Cukor's Tarnished Lady, starring Tallulah Bankhead. That performance did not receive screen credit, and this was often the case over Robinson's career, although he was in the billed main cast in Murder on the Campus (1934), Navy Secrets (1939) and There Goes Kelly (1945). Because of his size and physical presence, Robinson worked often during periods when gangster movies were the rage.[4]

Notable early roles for Robinson include a polo-playing hood in Little Giant (1933) starring Edward G. Robinson, a supervisor of slaves in Eddie Cantor's Roman Scandals that same year, and the Ben Turpin short Keystone Hotel in 1935.[4] In the 1940s, Robinson was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in eight films written and directed by Sturges.[5] In 1950, near the end of his career, Robinson played a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in The Jackie Robinson Story who progressed from bigotry to exuberant support of Jackie Robinson.[4]

Robinson died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 11, 1950, from a heart attack, but because he worked so prolifically, films in which he appeared continued to be seen until 1952, when At Sword's Point, a Musketeer adventure, was released. He was cremated.[6]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Dewey Robinson at the Internet Broadway Database
  2. ↑ "The Last Warning". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
  3. ↑ "Solid Ivory". IBDB.com. Internet Broadway Database.
  4. 1 2 3 Erickson, Hal, Allmovie biography
  5. ↑ Robinson appeared in The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Great Moment, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, Sturges' last American film.
  6. ↑ Resting Places
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