He possessed the same special brand of rebel/misfit sensitivity and charm that made superstars out of John Garfield and (later) James Dean and Montgomery Clift. In the war-torn 1940s, Robert Walker represented MGM's fresh, instinctive breed of up-and-coming talent. His boyish good looks combined with an attractive vulnerability came across the ...
I found myself up against mental walls. The maladjustments of that age grew and branched out all over the place. I was always trying to make an escape from life.
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When I remember how stubborn I was, how certain my parents didn't understand me, it scares me a little. You see, I have two boys myself, [Michael Walker] and [Robert Walker Jr.], and I wonder how I'll ever get it across to them, how I'll ever put it into words when they're 14 that I DO understand them. Because my parents are wonderful people, really, and they did understand me; only the connection was lost somewhere along the line, and they couldn't get it across to me how they felt.
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[about Jennifer Jones] I was only 19 but even then I knew there could never be anyone else. I didn't consider myself "good enough" for her. She made me want to be somebody. We were happy. Or at least I thought we were.
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My personal life has been completely wrecked by [David O. Selznick]'s obsession for my wife. What can you do to fight such a powerful man?
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Fact
1
Walker died before his death scene in My Son John (1952), his last scene in the picture, could be completed. The scene was completed utilizing a double and some outtakes from Strangers on a Train (1951).
2
In December of 1948, he made national news when he fled from a Topeka, Kansas, psychiatric clinic and smashed up the local police station after being arrested for public drunkenness.
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His performance as Bruno Anthony in Strangers on a Train (1951) is ranked #86 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
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He was born in Salt Lake City the night the "Big Fire" swept through the city. His father was the city editor of the "Deseret News"; and after a weary night of reporting on the blaze, he finally had the chance to put in a call to the hospital to learn of his son's birth. The next morning when he told his three other sons about their new brother, they were unimpressed. They had been up all night watching the fire, and another brother seemed much less interesting.
Married Jennifer Jones (then Phyllis Isley), on the one-year anniversary of the day they met. They separated on 7 November 1943, and she filed for divorce on 21 April 1945.
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Interred at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, UT.
$1.3 Million
