Robert Young
Forest Lawn Glendale
Robert Young is
best known for his television roles in "Father Knows Best" and "Marcus Welby, M.D."
Throughout his career, Young played characters who were
wholesome, charming, soft-spoken and decent, but rarely got the girl in the
end. MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer once said Young, "has no sex appeal."
But Young's relatively bland characters were popular in supporting roles in
more than 100 films during his 60-year career.
Born in Chicago, Young moved to California at an early age,
and began appearing in stage plays. His film debut was a small role in
"It Is The Law" (1924), but his first significant roles were in "The Black
Camel" (1931), starring Warner Oland and Bela Lugosi, and "The Sin of Madelon
Claudet (1931), starring Helen Hayes and Lewis Stone. Young was a busy actor
after that, appearing in dozens of films in the 1930s and 1940s, usually
in supporting roles, including "Strange Interlude" (1932), "Tugboat Annie"
(1933), "Spitfire" (1934), "Secret Agent" (1936), "Stowaway" (1936), "Northwest
Passage" (1940), "Western Union" (1941), "Lady Be Good" (1941), "Claudia"
(1943), "The Canterville Ghost" (1944) and "Crossfire" (1947).
In 1949, Young starred as Jim Anderson, the wholesome and decent
father in the radio program, "Father Knows Best." After five years on radio,
the show moved to television in 1954, as viewers watched Young and his television
family face the crises of jobs, dating and other familiar family traumas.
"Father Knows Best" ran until 1962, and continues to live on in syndication.
In his later years, Young revealed that his public image
was a direct contrast to his private live, which included a 30-year battle
with alcoholism and depression, resulting in a suicide attempt in 1991.
After he discovered that he was suffering from a chemical imbalance, Young
began to speak publicly about the issues and problems related to alcohol
and depression, and his personal struggles. In appreciation for the help
he was given by a psychiatrist in Illinois, Young made a donation to the
Franciscan Medical Center in East Moline, IL, to open the Robert Young
Center for Community Mental Health.
Young is buried next to his wife, Elizabeth Louise Henderson
Young (1910 - 1994). They were married for 61 years, from 1933 until her death.
Young was born Robert George Young on Feb. 22, 1907, in
Chicago, IL. He died on July 21, 1998, in Westlake Village, CA.
1907 - 1998
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