Robert Gist

Actor and Director.

Married to Anges Morrehead from 1953 to 1958.

Appeared in films like Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Stratton Story (1949), Alfred Hitcchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) as Det. Leslie Hennessey, D-Day the Sixth of June (1956), Al Capone (1959) as Dion O'Banion, The FBI Story (1959), Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant, and Jack the Giant Killer (1962).

Directed episodes of TV series like: Peter Gunn, Route 66, Naked City, The Untouchables, the Twilight Zone episode "I Dream of Genie", The Dick Powell Theatre, The Richard Boone Show, 12 O'Clock High, The Danny Thomas Hour, and The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Robert Gist passed away in 1998.

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via Agnes Moorehead by SmartCopy: Nov 26 2014, 2:17:34 UTC

From Wikipedia: Robert Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director.

Biography

Robert Gist was reared about the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring another boy in a fistfight, Gist instead ended up at Chicago's Hull House, a settlement house originally established by social worker Jane Addams. There he first became interested in acting.

Work in Chicago radio was followed by stage acting roles in Chicago and on Broadway (in the long-running Harvey with Josephine Hull).[citation needed] While acting in Harvey, he made his motion picture debut in 20th Century-Fox's Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Gist was also seen on Broadway in director Charles Laughton's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954) with Henry Fonda and John Hodiak.

While shooting Operation Petticoat (1959), Gist told director Blake Edwards that he was interested in directing.[citation needed] Edwards later hired Gist to helm episodes of the TV series Peter Gunn. Gist also directed episodes of TV shows Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, and many others.

Gist directed the world premiere of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Conversation at Midnight, produced by Worley Thorne and Susan Davis, in November 1961, on stage, at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles. Playing only on the three "off-nights" the theatre was available, Monday through Wednesday, the production was received enthusiastically by critics and audiences, and the small 160-seat theatre was filled to capacity each night for 6 weeks.[citation needed] With that success, the production moved to the larger Civic Playhouse, where it ran for more than 4 more months. In the cast were James Coburn, Jack Albertson, Eduard Franz, Hal England, Sandy Kenyon, Frank DeKova and Bill Berger. Three years later, Gist directed another production of the piece on Broadway, at the Billy Rose Theatre, again produced by Thorne, in association with Davis, with some of the first cast. But notably absent in key roles were James Coburn and Jack Albertson. The "play," a dramatic dialogue of ideas, delivered in various poetic forms, did not do well on Broadway and closed within the week.

Personal life

He was married to actress Agnes Moorehead from 1954 to 1958, although they separated in 1955. They met during the filming of The Stratton Story (1949).

In a 1970 interview with David Frost, Gist discussed his involvement with and commitment to Synanon.