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Robert Sterling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the musician Robert Sterling, see Robert Sterling (musician)
Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart (November 13, 1917 – May 30, 2006), was an American film and television actor.
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The son of baseball player and umpire Bill Hart, he was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and worked as a clothing salesman before pursuing an acting career.
After signing with Columbia Pictures in 1939, he changed his name to Robert Sterling to avoid confusion with silent western star William S. Hart. In 1941, Sterling went to MGM. He worked steadily as a supporting player for several years, but by the end of the decade, his film career had faltered.
Sterling reinvigorated his career, first with a club act with wife Anne Jeffreys, and then becoming a fixture on television. He was cast in numerous dramatic roles on early television, when networks often televised live dramatic performances.
Sterling is perhaps most well known, however, for starring with Jeffreys in the television program Topper.
After some additional television and film work in the early 1960s, Sterling essentially retired, making only sporadic appearances with Jeffreys in later shows such as Murder, She Wrote and Hotel.
Sterling was married twice. His first marriage, in 1943, was to noted actress Ann Sothern. They had a daughter, Tisha Sterling, who became an actress. Sothern and Sterling divorced in 1949.
Sterling met Jeffreys soon after and they were married in 1951. They had three sons: Jeffrey, Dana, and Tyler.
Sterling died Tuesday, May 30, 2006, aged 88, at his home in Brentwood, California. According to the Associated Press, his son, Jeffrey, indicated that Sterling died of natural causes, but had suffered from debilitating shingles for the last decade of his life ([1]).