- Born
- Died
- Place
Robert J. Wilke
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. -
As actor
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Stripes
The Sweet Creek County War
Days of Heaven
Wild and Wooly
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf
Santee
The Rookies
A Gunfight
The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler
They Call It Murder
The Cheyenne Social Club
The Desperate Mission
Tony Rome
The Magnificent Stranger
Smoky
The Hallelujah Trail
Fate Is the Hunter
Shock Treatment
The Gun Hawk
The Long Rope
Spartacus
The Slowest Gun in the West
The Magnificent Seven
Never Steal Anything Small
Man of the West
Return to Warbow
Night Passage
The Tarnished Angels
Hot Summer Night