ROBERT STACK
AKA: Robert Langford Stack;
Born: 1919-01-13
Birth place: Los Angeles, California, USA
Death: 2003-05-14
Death cause: heart failure
Profession: actor
Biography:
Tall, masculine, and blessed with a matinee idol's baritone voice, Robert Stack certainly looked every inch the movie star, but he actually found his greatest fame on television. His iron jaw and terse delivery made him the ideal crime fighter to tackle the worst gangsters of the Jazz Age on "The Untouchables" (ABC, 1959-1963). That air of moral inflexibility still carried freight almost 30 years later, when he hosted "Unsolved Mysteries" (NBC/CBS, 1987-2002). Prior to and between those two series, he co-starred in a number of popular films, earned an Academy Award nomination, and even got a few chances to poke fun at his rigid on-screen persona in several comedies and animated series.
Born Jan. 13, 1919 in Los Angeles, CA, Stack started life as Charles Langford Modini Stack, the second of two boys in his family. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother Elizabeth took him to Europe, where he stayed until around the age of six. Stack's stay on the continent provided him the ability to speak fluent French and Italian; in fact, he spoke no English until his return to the United States. Upon his arrival back in the U.S., Stack's parents remarried, but father Charles - a wealthy real estate investor - passed away when Stack was just nine. Stack's mother, who came from a show business family, was close to various Hollywood leading men (including Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy), and arranged for her son to spend time with these stars, both of whom acted as his "surrogate father."
Their influence was clearly felt when Stack attended college at USC, where he took drama courses. He also excelled at skeet shooting, and ranked highly on the national levels in 1935 and 1936. After graduation, he found himself at Universal Studios, where producer Joe Pasternak offered him a screen test. He broke into the film business opposite popular young actress-singer, Deanna Durbin in "First Love" (1939). The film garnered some controversy over its youthful romance plotline, which involved Stack giving Durbin her first on-screen kiss. Stack became a reliable go-to for Upstanding Young Men in all manner of features, ranging from light comedies to forgettable westerns and war pictures. Not all of Stack's early films were throwaways - he earned critical praise for his role as a young Nazi Party member in Frank Borzage's "The Mortal Storm" (1940), which led Hitler's regime to ban all MGM product from Germany. Tweaking his nose again at the Third Reich, he also appeared opposite his boyhood crush, comic actress Carole Lombard, in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy classic, "To Be or Not to Be" (1942). Lombard served as a mentor to Stack until her sudden death by plane crash while selling war bonds in January, 1942. "To Be or Not to Be" was released posthumously, while the world - and certainly Stack - mourned her premature passing. Stack would never get over her death, often commenting on her for documentaries even decades later.
Stack joined the Navy during World War II, serving as a gunnery officer for over three years. During his service, he earned numerous medals and commendations, particularly for his skill at sharp-shooting. After his return to civilian life, Stack returned to Hollywood and appeared in a variety of films. Among his credits in the early '50s were Budd Boetticher's Oscar-nominated drama "The Bullfighter and the Lady" (1951) and "Bwana Devil" (1952), the first color feature filmed in 3-D. In 1954, he landed a meaty role in the John Wayne-produced disaster film "The High and the Mighty" (1954). Stack played the captain of a doomed air flight who comes unglued under pressure; the film was a considerable success and helped cement Stack as a dependable leading man.
Stack played an undercover military agent who infiltrates a gang of American criminals operating in post-war Japan in Samuel Fuller's gritty "House of Bamboo" (1955), and starred as the alcoholic, emotionally stunted heir to an oil empire in Douglas Sirk's overripe melodrama, "Written on the Wind" (1956). The juicy part won Stack his first and only Oscar nomination, and crowned him as a bonafide star. Unfortunately, his time at the top in movies was short-lived. Reportedly, 20th Century Fox, with whom he was contracted, was unhappy that he had earned his nomination while on loan to Universal, and this cost him a chance to appear in the film version of the Ernest Hemingway-adapted, "The Sun Also Rises" in 1957. Whether this was true or not, Stack's film appearances became fewer and far between, with his contract with Fox running out in the late '50s. Like many film actors faced with the same challenges, he made the jump to television, where actor and co-owner of Desilu Studios, Desi Arnaz, tapped him to play '20s-era crimestopper Eliot Ness in his new drama "The Untouchables."
By its sophomore season, "The Untouchables" was earning considerable audience numbers - and critical brickbats over its excessive violence. The series eventually ran its course by 1963, but not before Stack took home an Emmy for his performance in 1960 (he would revisit the character in a 1991 TV-movie, "The Return of Eliot Ness"). After "The Untouchables," Stack returned to features, playing a psychiatrist who attempts to bring modern treatment to a mental hospital in "The Caretakers" (1963) and appearing among an all-star cast as American general Edwin Sibert in Rene Clement's "Is Paris Burning?" (1966). In 1968, Stack returned to television in the ambitious NBC drama, "The Name of the Game" (1968-1971). Stack played a crime reporter opposite Gene Barry and Tony Franciosa, all of whom shared top billing in the expensive semi-anthology program.
For much of the '70s, Stack appeared in made-for-TV movies, and made a third return to episodic TV in 1976, by way of the short-lived police drama, "Most Wanted" (ABC, 1976-77) for his former "Untouchables" producer Quinn Martin. His fourth and final dramatic series arrived in 1981 with another cop show, "Strike Force" (ABC, 1981-82) for Aaron Spelling, though he did enjoy a five-episode run on "Falcon Crest" (CBS, 1981-90) in 1987.
In 1979, Stack surprised critics and audiences with his blithe portrayal of real-life WWII general Joseph Stilwell in Steven Spielberg's expensive comedy "1941." Though the film was a box-office flop, Stack's light comic touch was noted, and the following year, he earned more laughs as a hard-as-nails airplane captain in the Zucker Brothers' hit comedy "Airplane!" (1980). Stack had his share of hilarious moments, most notably his first appearance on-screen, in which he nearly decimates the population of an airport terminal simply because they walk too closely to him.
Following his "Airplane" success, Stack soon found frequent work in comedies throughout the '80s and '90s, often playing parodies of his stiff, patriarchal screen persona. His comedies include "Big Trouble" (1988), John Cassavetes' failed follow-up to "The In-Laws" (1978); "Caddyshack II" (1988); and "Joe Versus The Volcano" (1990). Stack also began lending his distinctive voice to numerous animated features and series, beginning with Ultra Magnus in "The Transformers: The Movie" (1986) and carrying through the next two decades in "Beavis and Butt-head Do America" (1996), "Recess: School's Out" (2001) and the direct-to-video, "Hercules: Zero to Hero" (1999).
Having poked fun at his screen persona for so long, Stack used it to great effect as the host and narrator of "Unsolved Mysteries," which brought him a level of fame and attention he had not experienced since "The Untouchables." Much of the series' tone and effectiveness came from Stack's deep and sonorous voice-overs, which helped to underscore the suspenseful nature of the show's dramatic recreations of real-life crimes and unexplained events. Stack enjoyed his work on the program very much - even if he politely dismissed its more fantastical moments - and praised its on-screen hotline as a useful tool in crime prevention. The show was a massive hit, and even brought Stack a few film roles - he and "Unsolved Mysteries" provided a small but significant plot point in the comedy "Mumford" (1999), and he returned to his self-deprecating side in the broad laughfest, "BASEketball" (1998).
Stack was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002 and underwent treatment. On May 14, 2003, he died of a heart attack, and was interred in Westwood, California. Stack had married actress Rosemarie Bowe in 1956 and remained with her until his death. They had two children, a son and a daughter. The Stacks occasionally appeared together in productions, including the 1975 TV-movie "Murder on Flight 502" and "Big Trouble" (1986).
Family
FATHER: James Langford Stack Sr.
MOTHER: Elizabeth Modini Stack.
UNCLE: Richard Bonelli. Metropolitan Opera singer.
AUNT: Mona Chapman Bonelli. Lyricist. Died on March 13, 1998 at age 95.
BROTHER: James Langford Stack Sr.
DAUGHTER: Elizabeth Stack. Actor. Born 1957.
SON: Charles Stack. Born 1958.
Companion
WIFE: Rosemarie Bowe. Actor. Married January 23, 1956.
Milestone
National skeet champion at age 16; member of all-American team
1939: Screen debut, "First Love", in which he gave screen star Deanna Durbin her first screen kiss
1942: Appeared as a Polish flying ace in "To Be or Not To Be"
Film career interrupted during WWII when he served with US Air Force
TV debut on live programs: "Lux Video Theatre", "Ford Theatre", "Producers Showcase" during the early 1950s
1951: Had leading role in "The Bullfighter and the Lady"
1954: Delivered a strong supporting turn as a pilot in "The High and the Mighty"
1955: Played the destective investigating the case in a TV version of "Laura" (CBS)
1956: Received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for "Written on the Wind", directed by Douglas Sirk
1957: Co-starred in the SIrk-directed "The Tarnished Angels"
1959: Formed Langford Productions
1959: Had title role in the biopic "John Paul Jones"
1959 - 1963: Co-produced and starred as Eliot Ness in the ABC crime drama "The Untouchables"; won Best Actor Emmy in 1960
1968: Again played detective investigating the case in an ABC remake of "Laura"
Starred in the NBC crime drama "The Name of the Game"
1975: Played title role in "The Honorable Sam Houston" (ABC)
Returned to series TV in "Most Wanted" (ABC)
1980: Demonstrated comic flair in the spoof "Airplane!"
Played the lead in the ABC series "Strike Force"
1985: Co-starred in teh ABC miniseries "Hollywood Wives"
Served as host for "Unsolved Mysteries" (NBC); began as occasional specials before becoming a weekly series
1990: Last on camera feature role (to date) "Joe Versus the Volcano"
1991: Reprised most famous role in the NBC TV-movie "The Return of Eliot Ness"
1998 - Present: Resumed hosting duties of "Unsolved Mysteries" when it switched networks to CBS
Education
University of Southern California - Los Angeles, California Henry Duffy School of Theater - studied six months, then signed with Universal
Bibliography
"Straight Shooting" Robert Stack 1979
Citizenship
United States
Notes
He was inducted into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame in 1971.
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