The name's Preston. Robert Preston.
Born the son of a garment worker and a record store clerk in 1918, I grew up in Los Angeles. I was a trained musician, playing several instruments, and in high school became interested in theatre. I joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, taking classes and appearing in scores of plays alongside such soon-to-be-well-known actors as Dana Andrews, George Reeves, Victor Mature, and Don DeFore.
Even in the distinguished company of Playhouse veterans like Victor Jory and Samuel S. Hinds, I was an acknowledged star in the making. During one play, a Paramount scout saw me and I signed a contract with the studio, which renamed me Robert Preston (I was born Robert Preston Meservey). After several roles in inconsequential films, I became a favorite of director Cecil B. DeMille, who cast me in several films but became nevertheless one of the few people I actively and publicly disliked. In 1946, after serving in England with the Army Air Corps, I married Kay Feltus (aka Catherine Craig), whom I had known in Pasadena. I struggled through numerous unfulfilling roles in the Forties, then relocated to New York and concentrated on theatre. I played many roles on Broadway and in 1957 began the part that would immortalize me in entertainment history, that of Professor Harold Hill in the musical The Music Man. I won a Tony Award for the role and repeated it in the film version.
Now a star of the first magnitude, I alternated between stage and film, winning another Tony for I Do, I Do, and appearing to enormous good effect in such films as The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), and All the Way Home (1963). I received an Oscar nomination for my triumphant portrayal of a witty, gay entertainer in Victor/Victoria (1982).
Robert Preston died on March 21, 1987 from lung cancer, after a career that took him from modest supporting lead to national treasure.
