Robert Gist

Biography

Robert Marion Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director. Gist was reared around 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. 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.

Most Known For

Perry Mason

as Deputy D.A. Claude Drumm

Studio One

as Coley Davis

Have Gun, Will Travel

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

as Casey Hydecker

Rawhide

as Sheriff Ed Stockton

Rawhide

as Harleck

Rawhide

as Sheriff

Gunsmoke

as Rabb Briggs

Gunsmoke

as Rourke

Gunsmoke

as Cam Speegle

Matinee Theater

Peter Gunn

The Detectives

Hawaiian Eye

Black Saddle

as Milo Dawes

Sea Hunt

Johnny Ringo

as Kincaid

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

as Joe Quincy

Miracle on 34th Street

as Department Store Window Dresser (uncredited)

The DuPont Show with June Allyson

as Lennie