Dewey Robinson (August 17, 1898 – December 11, 1950) was an American film
character actor
A character actor is an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric, or interesting character (arts), characters in supporting roles, rather than leading ones.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrie ...
who appeared in more than 250 films made between 1931 and 1952.
Career
Dewey Robinson was born in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
, in 1898, and made his
Broadway debut in 1922 in the melodrama ''The Last Warning'', which ran for seven months and 238 performances. Several years later, in 1925, he appeared in a comedy, ''Solid Ivory'', his final Broadway production.
In 1931, Robinson, a big, barrel-chested man at who easily conveyed physical menace, made his first film when he played a waiter in
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...
's ''
Tarnished Lady
''Tarnished Lady'' is a 1931 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Tallulah Bankhead and Clive Brook. The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is based on his short story, ''A Story of a New York La ...
'', starring
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Lifeboat (194 ...
. 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.
[Erickson, Hal]
Allmovie biography
/ref>
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
Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Cantor was one of the prominent entertainers of his era.
Some of h ...
's '' Roman Scandals'' that same year, and the Ben Turpin
Bernard "Ben" Turpin (September 19, 1869 – July 1, 1940) was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films. His trademarks were his Esotropia, cross-eyed appearance and adeptness at vigorous physical comedy ...
short '' Keystone Hotel'' in 1935. In the 1940s, Robinson was part of Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
He is credited as being the first screenwriter to find success as a director. Prior to Sturges, other ...
' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in eight films written and directed by Sturges. 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
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...
.
Robinson died in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, on December 11, 1950, from a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
, but because he worked so prolifically, films in which he appeared continued to be seen until 1952, when ''At Sword's Point
''At Sword's Point'', also known as ''Sons of the Three Musketeers'', is a 1952 American historical action adventure film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Cornel Wilde and Maureen O'Hara. It was shot in Technicolor by RKO Radio Pictures. T ...
'', a Musketeer adventure, was released. He was cremated.''Resting Places''
/ref>
Selected filmography
* ''Tarnished Lady
''Tarnished Lady'' is a 1931 American Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Tallulah Bankhead and Clive Brook. The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is based on his short story, ''A Story of a New York La ...
'' (1931) as Tony the Waiter (uncredited)
* '' Enemies of the Law'' (1931) as Tony Catello
* '' Six Hours to Live'' (1932)
* '' The Woman from Monte Carlo'' (1932)
* '' Blonde Venus'' (1932) (uncredited)
* '' The Big Broadcast'' (1932)
* '' The Little Giant'' (1933)
* '' She Done Him Wrong'' (1933)
* '' Her Forgotten Past'' (1933)
* '' A Lady's Profession'' (1933)
* '' Soldiers of the Storm'' (1933)
* '' Laughing at Life'' (1933)
* '' Notorious but Nice'' (1933)
* '' Roman Scandals'' (1933)
* '' Shadows of Sing Sing'' (1933)
* '' Murder on the Campus'' (1934)
* ''The Big Shakedown
''The Big Shakedown'' is a 1934 American pre-Code crime drama film starring Charles Farrell and Bette Davis, and directed by John Francis Dillon. The screenplay is based on the story "Cut Rate" by Niven Busch and Samuel G. Engel. The film ...
'' (1934)
* '' Student Tour'' (1934) as Huan Lu (uncredited)
* '' Palooka from Paducah'' (1935, Short)
* '' One Run Elmer'' (1935, Short)
* '' Pursuit'' (1935)
* '' Keystone Hotel'' (1935, Short)
* ''A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...
'' (1935)
* '' Too Tough to Kill'' (1935)
* '' Missing Girls'' (1936)
* '' All American Chump'' (1936)
* ''Slave Ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...
'' (1937)
* '' The 13th Man'' (1937)
* '' New Faces of 1937'' (1937)
* '' Marry the Girl'' (1937)
* '' The Toast of New York'' (1937)
* '' Navy Secrets'' (1939)
* '' Sky Bandits'' (1940)
* '' The Great McGinty'' (1940)
* '' Christmas in July'' (1940) (uncredited)
* ''Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally ...
'' (1940)
* '' Sullivan's Travels'' (1941) (uncredited)
* '' Isle of Missing Men'' (1942)
* '' The Palm Beach Story'' (1942)
* '' 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge'' (1942)
* ''Casablanca
Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
'' (1942) as Bouncer at Rick's (uncredited)
* '' The Ghost Ship'' (1943)
* '' The Woman of the Town'' (1943)
* '' Timber Queen'' (1944)
* '' Trocadero'' (1944)
* ''San Diego, I Love You
''San Diego, I Love You'' is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Jon Hall, Louise Allbritton and Edward Everett Horton.
The screenwriters for the film included Ruth McKenney, author of '' My Sister Eileen'' ...
'' (1944)
* '' Hail the Conquering Hero'' (1944) (uncredited)
* '' Murder, My Sweet'' (1944) (uncredited)
* '' The Great Moment'' (1944) (uncredited)
* '' There Goes Kelly'' (1945)
* '' Fashion Model'' (1945)
* '' The Lady Confesses'' (1945)
* '' Stairway to Light'' (1945 short)
* '' Black Market Babies'' (1945)
* '' Pardon My Past'' (1945)
* ''The Bells of St. Mary's
''The Bells of St. Mary's'' is a 1945 American musical comedy-drama film, produced and directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Written by Dudley Nichols and based on a story by McCarey, the film is about a priest a ...
'' (1945) as Pedestrian (uncredited)
* '' The Michigan Kid'' (1947)
* '' Killer Dill'' (1947)
* '' The Checkered Coat'' (1948)
* '' River Lady'' (1948)
* '' The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend'' (1949) (uncredited)
* '' Hellfire'' (1949)
* '' Buccaneer's Girl'' (1950)
* '' The Jackie Robinson Story'' (1950) (uncredited)
* '' Father of the Bride'' (1950) as Moving Man with lamp (uncredited)
* '' At War with the Army'' (1950)
* '' Skipalong Rosenbloom'' (1951)
* ''At Sword's Point
''At Sword's Point'', also known as ''Sons of the Three Musketeers'', is a 1952 American historical action adventure film directed by Lewis Allen and starring Cornel Wilde and Maureen O'Hara. It was shot in Technicolor by RKO Radio Pictures. T ...
'' (1952)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Dewey
1898 births
1950 deaths
American male film actors
American male stage actors
Male actors from New Haven, Connecticut
20th-century American male actors