Robert John Wagner Jr
Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930)[1] is an American actor. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on Two and a Half Men(2007–2008) and NCIS (2010–2019).
In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films (1997, 1999, 2002), as well as for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Concorde… Airport ’79 (1979).
20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures
Wagner became interested in acting, and after an unsuccessful screen test directed by Fred Zinnemannfor his film Teresa (1951), was represented by Albert R. Broccoli.[7] He made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950); was signed by agent Henry Willsonand put under contract with 20th Century Fox.
“I started off as an ingenue”, recalled Wagner. “I was 19 years old. I was the boy next door. But you always felt you could work your way up, that you could have a better part in the next picture. [Head of Fox] Darryl Zanuck was always placing me in different positions.”
Wagner’s first film for Fox was Halls of Montezuma (1951) a World War II film. Wagner had a supporting role, with Richard Widmark as the star. The studio then had him perform a similar function in another war movie, The Frogmen (1951), again with Widmark; the cast also included another young male under contract to the studio, Jeffrey Hunter, with whom Wagner would often work. Let’s Make It Legal (1951) was a comedy where Wagner again supported an older star, in this case Claudette Colbert.
Wagner first gained significant attention with a small but showy part as a shell-shocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952).
“You were part of 20th Century Fox”, he said. “You felt proud of being part of the organization. When I wasn’t working, I was on the road, going out and selling movies or dancing on the stage and meeting the public. They never let you rest.”
20th Century Studios started to give Wagner better roles. He was the romantic male lead in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a biopic about John Philip Sousastarring Clifton Webb. He supported James Cagney and Dan Dailey in John Ford’s version of What Price Glory(1952) and supported Webb again in Titanic (1953). He was in a minor Western, The Silver Whip (1953) with Rory Calhoun.
Leading man
Fox gave Wagner his first starring role in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953). Reviews were poor but the movie was only the third ever to be shot in CinemaScope and was a big hit.
Also popular was a Western, Broken Lance (1954), where Wagner supported Spencer Tracy for director Edward Dmytryk, appearing as Tracy’s son. Fox gave Wagner the lead in an expensive spectacular, Prince Valiant (1954). While popular, critical reception was poor and Wagner later joked his wig in the movie made him look like Jane Wyman. He was teamed with Jeffrey Hunter in a Western, White Feather (1955).
Wagner was borrowed by Paramount for The Mountain(1956), directed by Dmytryk, where Wagner was cast as Spencer Tracy’s brother, having played his son just two years earlier in the same director’s Broken Lance. He received more critical acclaim for the lead in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), from the novel by Ira Levin; it was made for Crown Productions, a company of Darryl F. Zanuck‘s brother in law (the leads were all under contract to Fox) and released through United Artists.
Back at Fox, Wagner was in Between Heaven and Hell(1956), a war movie, and The True Story of Jesse James(1957), playing the leading role for director Nicholas Ray(Jeffrey Hunter was Frank). Both movies were box office disappointments and it seemed Wagner was unable to make the transition to top-level star. This appeared confirmed when he was the lead in Stopover Tokyo(1957). In 1959, Wagner disparaged the film:
