Роберт Престон: Американский актёр и певец

American actor and singer (1918–1987)

Robert Preston Meservey (June 8, 1918 – March 21, 1987) was an American stage and film actor and singer. He is best known for originating the role of Professor Harold Hill in the 1957 musical The Music Man for which he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role in the 1962 film adaptation, for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. Preston made his Broadway debut in The Male Animal in 1952. He won two Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical for The Music Man (1957) and I Do! I Do! (1967) and was Tony nominated for Mack and Mabel (1975). Preston collaborated twice with filmmaker Blake Edwards, first in S. O. B. (1981) and again in Victor/Victoria (1982), the later earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea) and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and a billing clerk for American Express.

Preston appeared in a stock company production of Julius Caesar and a Pasadena Playhouse production of Idiot's Delight. A Paramount Pictures attorney liked his work and recruited him to the studio. The Los Angeles Times reported that Preston's mother was employed by Decca Records, Bing Crosby's label and was acquainted with Crosby's brother Everett, a talent agent; she convinced him to watch one of Preston's performances at the Pasadena Playhouse. The result was a contract with the Crosby agency and a movie deal with Paramount Pictures, Crosby's studio. Preston made his screen debut in 1938, in the crime dramas King of Alcatraz (1938) and Illegal Traffic. The studio ordered Preston to stop using his family name of Meservey. As Robert Preston, the name by which he was known for his entire professional career, he appeared in many Hollywood films, predominantly but not exclusively Westerns. He was Digby Geste in the sound remake of Beau Geste (1939) with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland, and he featured in North West Mounted Police (1940), also with Cooper. He played a Los Angeles police detective in the noir This Gun for Hire (1942).

World War II interrupted Preston's Paramount assignments. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the United States Army Air Forces and served as an intelligence officer in the U. S. 9th Air Force with the 386th Bombardment Group (Medium). At the end of the war in Europe, the 386th and Captain Robert Meservey, an S 2 Officer (intelligence), were stationed in Sint Truiden, Belgium. Meservey's job had been receiving intelligence reports from 9th Air Force headquarters and briefing the bomber crews on what to expect in accomplishing their missions.

When Preston resumed his movie career in 1947, it was as a freelance character actor, accepting roles for Paramount, RKO, MGM, and various independent producers. Although Preston acted in many movies, he never became a major star. In a 1984 interview, he recalled, "I played the lead in all the B pictures and the villain in all the epics. After a while, it was clear to me I had sort of reached what I was going to be in movies." Preston found additional roles in 1950s television.

Preston is probably best known for his performance as Professor Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man (1957). "They'd run through all the musical comedy people before they cast me", Preston remembered years later. He continued in the role until January 1959, when he was replaced by Eddie Albert for 18 months. In June 1960, Preston returned to the role for two weeks, until his successor, Bert Parks, became available. Parks finished the run while Preston was in Hollywood, busy with the film version of the show. In 1961, Preston was asked to make a recording as part of a program by the President's Council on Physical Fitness to encourage schoolchildren to do more daily exercise. Copies of the recording of the song, Chicken Fat, written and composed by Meredith Willson, performed by Preston with full orchestral accompaniment, were distributed to elementary schools across the nation and played for students as they performed calisthenics. The song later became a surprise novelty hit and part of many baby boomers' childhood memories. In 1962, Preston played an important supporting role, as wagonmaster Roger Morgan, in MGM's epic How the West Was Won. In 1965, he was the male part of a duo lead musical, I Do! I Do! with Mary Martin, for which he won his second Tony Award. He played the title role in the musical Ben Franklin in Paris, and he originated the role of Henry II in the stage production of The Lion in Winter, whom Peter O'Toole portrayed in the film version, receiving an Academy Award nomination. In 1974, he starred alongside Bernadette Peters in Jerry Herman's Broadway musical Mack & Mabel as Mack Sennett, the famous silent film director. That same year, the film version of Mame, another Jerry Herman musical, was released with Preston starring, alongside Lucille Ball, in the role of Beauregard Burnside. In the film, which was not a box office success, Preston sang "Loving You", which Herman wrote especially for Preston's film portrayal. In 1978, Preston starred in another musical that did not make it to Broadway, The Prince of Grand Street, in which he played a matinee idol of New York's Yiddish theater who refused to renounce the roles he had played in his youth, despite having aged out of them. With a libretto and songs by Bob Merrill and direction by Gene Saks, the show closed during its Boston tryout. In 1979, Preston portrayed a snake handling family patriarch Hadley Chisholm in a CBS Western miniseries, The Chisholms, with Rosemary Harris as his wife, Minerva. The story chronicled the Chisholm family losing their land in Virginia and migrating to the west to begin a new life. When CBS tried to continue the saga as a series the following year, Preston reprised his role, his character dying in the fifth episode. The series, which also featured co stars Ben Murphy, Brett Cullen, and James Van Patten, lasted only four more episodes after Preston's departure.

Preston appeared in several other stage and film musicals, including Victor/Victoria (1982), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His other film roles include Ace Bonner in Sam Peckinpah's Junior Bonner (1972), "Big Ed" Bookman in Semi Tough (1977), and Dr. Irving Finegarten in Blake Edwards' 1981 Hollywood satire, S. O. B. His last theatrical film role was in The Last Starfighter (1984) as an interstellar con man/military recruiter called Centauri. He said that he based his approach to the character of Centauri on that which he had taken to Professor Harold Hill. Indeed, the role of Centauri was written for him with his performance as Harold Hill in mind. In 1983, Preston played an aging gunfighter in September Gun, a CBS TV Western film opposite Patty Duke and Christopher Lloyd. He also starred in the well received HBO 1985 movie Finnegan, Begin Again with Mary Tyler Moore. Preston's final role was in the television film Outrage! (1986); he portrayed a grief stricken father who seeks justice for the brutal rape and murder of his daughter. On March 21, 1987, at age 68, Preston died of lung cancer. He is the subject of a 2022 biography, Robert Preston: Forever the Music Man, written by Debra Warren.

Year Title Role Notes 1938 King of Alcatraz Robert MacArthur Illegal Traffic Charles Bent Martin 1939 Disbarred Bradley Kent Union Pacific Dick Allen Beau Geste Digby Geste 1940 Typhoon Johnny Potter North West Mounted Police Ronnie Logan Moon Over Burma Chuck Lane 1941 The Lady from Cheyenne Steve Lewis Parachute Battalion Donald Morse New York Town Paul Bryson, Jr. The Night of January 16th Steve Van Ruyle Pacific Blackout Robert Draper 1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Himself uncredited Reap the Wild Wind Dan Cutler This Gun for Hire Michael Crane Wake Island Pvt. Joe Doyle 1943 Night Plane from Chungking Capt. Nick Stanton Wings Up 1947 The Macomber Affair Francis Macomber Variety Girl Himself Wild Harvest Jim Davis 1948 Big City Rev. Philip Y. Andrews Blood on the Moon Tate Riling Whispering Smith Murray Sinclair 1949 Tulsa Brad Brady The Lady Gambles David Boothe 1950 The Sundowners James Cloud ('Kid Wichita') 1951 When I Grow Up Father Reed Cloudburst John Graham Best of the Badmen Matthew Fowler My Outlaw Brother Joe Waldner Face to Face Sheriff Jack Potter 1955 The Last Frontier Col. Frank Marston1956 Sentinels in the Air Narrator Voice; 1960 The Dark at the Top of the Stairs Rubin Flood1962 The Music Man Harold Hill How the West Was Won Roger Morgan 1963 Island of Love Steve Blair All the Way Home Jay Follett 1972 Junior Bonner Ace Bonner Child's Play Joseph Dobbs 1974 Mame Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside 1977 Semi Tough Big Ed Bookman 1981 S. O. B. Dr. Irving Finegarten 1982 Victor/Victoria Carroll "Toddy" Todd 1984 The Last Starfighter Centauri

Year Title Role Venue Ref. 1951 Twentieth Century 1952–1953 The Male Animal Joe Ferguson City Center, Broadway 1953 Men of Distinction Peter Hogarth 48th Street Theatre, Broadway 1954 His and Hers Clem Scot 1954 The Magic and the Loss George Wilson Booth Theatre, Broadway 1955 The Tender Trap Joe McCall Longacre Theatre, Broadway 1955 Janus Gil Plymouth Theatre, Broadway 1957 The Hidden River Jean Monnerie Playhouse Theatre, Broadway 1957–1961 The Music Man Prof. Harold Hill Majestic Theatre, Broadway 1963 Too True to be Good The Burglar 54th Street Theatre, Broadway 1963–1964 Nobody Loves an Albatross Nat Bentley Lyceum Theatre, Broadway 1964–1965 Ben Franklin in Paris Benjamin Franklin Lunt Fontanne Theatre, Broadway 1966 The Lion in Winter Henry II Ambassador Theatre, Broadway 1966–1968 I Do! I Do! He / Michael 46th Street Theatre, Broadway 1974 Mack & Mabel Mack Sennett Majestic Theatre, Broadway 1976–1978 Sly Fox Foxwell Sly / The Judge Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway 1978 The Prince of Grand Street Philadelphia / Boston

Year Association Category Project Result Ref. Film and Television Awards 1962 Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Musical or Comedy The Music Man 1981 National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Supporting Actor S. O. B. 1982 National Board of Review Awards Best Supporting ActorVictor/Victoria 1982 Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor 1982 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actor 1982 Golden Globe AwardsBest Actor – Musical or Comedy 1984 Saturn Awards Best Supporting Actor The Last Starfighter Theatre Awards 1958Tony AwardsBest Actor in a Musical The Music Man 1967 I Do! I Do! 1975 Mack & Mabel