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Robert J. Wilke

Robert J. Wilke

Birthday: 1914-05-18 | Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Prolific American character actor of primarily villainous roles. The son of German parents, Cincinnati feed-store manager August Wilke and his wife Rose, Robert Joseph Wilke grew up in Cincinnati. He worked as a lifeguard at a Miami, Florida, hotel, where he made contacts in the film business. He was able to obtain work as a stuntman and continued as such until the mid-'40s, when he began getting actual roles in low-budget westerns and serials. A prominent appearance as one of the heavies in Le train sifflera trois fois (1952) led to work in higher-quality films. He worked extensively in television as well as movies, and became an enormously familiar face, though a fairly anonymous one to the general public. His weathered visage made him a perfect western bad guy, but he occasionally played sympathetic parts as well, as in Les moissons du ciel (1978). An expert golfer, he was said by his friend Claude Akins to have earned more money on the golf course than he ever did in movies. He died in 1989. -

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1978
Days of Heaven

as    The Farm Foreman

1973
Santee

as    Deaks (as Robert Wilke

1973
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

as    The Sheriff

1971
The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler

as    Hugh Fielding

1971
A Gunfight

as    Marshal Tom Cater

1971
They Call It Murder

as    Sheriff Rex Brandon

1969
The Desperate Mission

as    Gant

1967
Tony Rome

as    Ralph Turpin

1966
Smoky

as    Jeff Nicks

1965
The Hallelujah Trail

as    Chief Five Barrels

1965
The Legend of Jesse James

as    Marshal Sam Corbett

1964
Shock Treatment

as    Technician Mike Newton (as Robert Wilke)

1963
The Gun Hawk

as    Johnny Flanders

1961
The Long Rope

as    Ben Matthews

1960
The Slowest Gun in the West

as    Billy the Kid Blake

1958
The Tarnished Angels

as    Hank

1958
Man of the West

as    Ponch

1958
Return to Warbow

as    Red

1957
Night Passage

as    Concho

1957
Hot Summer Night

as    Tom Ellis (as Robert Wilke)

1956
The Lone Ranger

as    Cassidy

1956
Written on the Wind

as    Dan Willis

1956
Backlash

as    Jeff Welker

1956
Gun the Man Down

as    Matt Rankin