The affable, solid onscreen presence of Robert George Young (1907-98) belied a life plagued by depression and its resultant alcoholism.
Young studied acting and performed at the Pasadena Playhouse, and was touring with a stock company when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He made his debut in a low-budget whodunnit, The Black Camel in 1931, and went on to appear in around 100 feature films, as well as pursuing the successful television career that culminated in Marcus Welby MD (1969-76).
MGM largely restricted Young to ‘B’ pictures, though they did send him to England in 1936 to play one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first attractive villains in Secret Agent (1936). They also starred him, to great effect, in H M Pulham Esq (1941), opposite Hedy Lamarr.
The quality of Young’s roles improved when he left MGM in 1941, in pictures like The Enchanted Cottage (1945) and the outstanding film noir Crossfire (1947). But, by 1954 his career in feature films was over and he concentrated on television, starting with the transfer of his radio series Father Knows Best (1954-60). He won the Primetime Emmy for best actor three times, plus a number of nominations.
Young began his short career in MGM musicals by playing himself in the rowdy Hollywood Party. He subsequently starred in Honolulu, Lady Be Good and Cairo.
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