Robert Montgomery

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May 21, 1904

27 September 1981, New York City, New York, USA (cancer)

Henry Montgomery Jr.

Elizabeth "Buffy" Grant Harkness (9 December 1950 - 27 September 1981) (his death)

Elizabeth Allen (14 April 1928 - 5 December 1950) (divorced) 2 children

Actor

1960 The Gallant Hours (voice) (uncredited)

1958 Navy Log (TV series)

1953 Harvest (TV movie)

1950 Your Witness

1949 Once More, My Darling

1948 June Bride

1948 The Saxon Charm

1947 Ride the Pink Horse

1947 Lady in the Lake

1945 They Were Expendable

1941 Unfinished Business

1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan

1941 Rage in Heaven

1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith

1940 The Door with Seven Locks

1940 Busman's Honeymoon

1940 The Earl of Chicago

1939 Fast and Loose

1938 Three Loves Has Nancy

1938 Yellow Jack

1938 The First Hundred Years

1937 Live, Love and Learn

1937 Ever Since Eve

1937 Night Must Fall

1937 The Last of Mrs. Cheyney

1936 Piccadilly Jim

1936 Trouble for Two

1936 Petticoat Fever

1935 No More Ladies

1935 Vanessa: Her Love Story

1935 Biography of a Bachelor Girl

1934 Forsaking All Others

1934 Hide-Out

1934 Riptide

1934 The Mystery of Mr. X

1934 Fugitive Lovers

1933 Night Flight

1933 Another Language

1933 When Ladies Meet

1933 Made on Broadway

1933 Hell Below

1932 Faithless

1932 Blondie of the Follies

1932 Letty Lynton

1932 -But the Flesh Is Weak

1932 Lovers Courageous

1931 Private Lives

1931 The Man in Possession

1931 Shipmates

1931 Strangers May Kiss

1931 The Easiest Way

1931 Inspiration

1931 The Voice of Hollywood No. 7 (Second Series) (short)

1930 War Nurse

1930 Love in the Rough

1930 Our Blushing Brides

1930 The Sins of the Children

1930 The Big House

1930 The Divorcee

1930 Free and Easy

1929 Their Own Desire

1929 Untamed

1929 So This Is College

1929 Three Live Ghosts

1929 The Single Standard (uncredited)

Director

1960 The Gallant Hours

1950 Your Witness

1949 Once More, My Darling

1947 Ride the Pink Horse

1947 Lady in the Lake

1945 They Were Expendable (uncredited)

Producer

1960 The Gallant Hours (producer)

1950-1960 Robert Montgomery Presents (TV series) (producer - 321 episodes)

1953 Eye Witness (TV series) (producer - 13 episodes)

Appearances

1978 The Hollywood Greats (TV series documentary)

1960 Today (TV series)

1950-1960 Robert Montgomery Presents (TV series)

1957 What's My Line? (TV series)

1954 The Colgate Comedy Hour (TV series)

1953 The Name's the Same (TV series)

1951 The Jack Benny Program (TV series)

1948 The Secret Land (documentary) (voice)

1938 Hollywood Goes to Town (documentary short)

1938 Hollywood Handicap (short)

1936 Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 8 (documentary short)

1935 Starlit Days at the Lido (short)

1935 Screen Snapshots Series 14, No. 8 (documentary short)

1932 Screen Snapshots (documentary short)

Academy Awards

1942 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).

1938 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Night Must Fall (1937).

Emmy Awards

1952 Nominated Emmy Best Actor

Walk of Fame

Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture At 6440 Hollywood Blvd. Television At 1631 Vine Street.

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Robert Montgomery passed much of his career as the male half of the kind of luminous couples that populated the sumptuous fare produced by MGM, his studio for the course of the 1930s. He was attractive, well-spoken, wore clothes with style, and emanated the requisite panache required to squire Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and other luminaries.

He worked on the New York stage before signing with MGM in 1929. With Garbo, he costarred in Inspiration (1931); with Crawford in Untamed (1929), Letty Lynton (1932), No More Ladies (1935), and The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937). He broke with this pattern when he played the serial killer in Night Must Fall (1937), although equally challenging parts did not follow, and he left MGM in 1940.

As a freelancer, diversity came his way. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's underrated farce Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), with Carole Lombard, and the hugely successful Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). Military service in World War II interrupted this trend, as he joined the navy, and he relived the experience onscreen in John Ford's stirring They Were Expendable (1945).

Subsequently, Montgomery stepped behind the camera, with mixed success. His two most notable releases fell in the realm of film noir: the moody south-of-the-border yarn Ride the Pink Horse (1947), and the Raymond Chandler adaptation Lady in the Lake (1947), in which the camera wholly took over the perspective of the physically absent Philip Marlowe. Montgomery starred in the former, and voiced the dialogue of the shamus in the latter. Television thereafter occupied his attention, although he directed one last movie, a biopic of Admiral Halsey starring James Cagney, The Gallant Hours (1960).

"Enjoy the applause and the adulaton of the public. But never, never believe it."

Father of actress Elizabeth Montgomery and Robert Montgomery Jr.

Was widely considered to be one of the best dressed men in Hollywood and for years did not carry a wallet because it ruined the drape of his suits.