Robert Wilcox (May 19, 1910 – June 11, 1955) was an American film and theater actor of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Personal life
Wilcox was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Dr. Roscoe Squires Wilcox of Rochester, who died when Wilcox was 16. Barrymore chronicled their bouts with alcoholism in her 1957 autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, which she dedicated to him.
Acting career
He started his career with a Buffalo, New York, Community Theater Group.
His career began in earnest in 1936 after being signed by a Universal Pictures talent scout while playing Duke Mantee in a summer-stock production of The Petrified Forest. Wilcox worked in 18 Hollywood films before World War II, starting with the role of the Intern in Let Them Live. (Another source states that he played the romantic lead in 26 films, before going into the service for World War II.
He was inducted into the United States Army February 27, 1942. He served 38 months in the United States Army during World War II, rising from private to the rank of captain, and seeing action in Belgium, France and Germany. Following the war, he returned to Rochester, and appeared in an amateur production of Soldier's Wife, a quiet comedy by Rose Franken about a veteran returning from the Pacific, presented in January 1946 by the Rochester Community Players. The production, an English translation of the French comic success, Moumou, was directed by Leonard Altobell (also a native of Rochester) and opened its national tour at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester November 8, 1954.