Robert Gist
Actor
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.
As Director
Filmography
Strangers on a Train
as Det. Leslie Hennessey 1951
Miracle on 34th Street
as Department Store Window Dresser (uncredited) 1947
Operation Petticoat
as Lieutenant Watson 1959
The Band Wagon
as Hal 1953
Angel Face
as Miller 1953
Jack the Giant Killer
as Scottish Captain 1962
Al Capone
as Dion O'Banion 1959
The FBI Story
as Medicine Salesman 1959
The Stratton Story
as Earnie 1949
The Naked and the Dead
as Red 1958
D-Day the Sixth of June
as Dan Stenick 1956
Scene of the Crime
as P.J. Pontiac 1949
Jigsaw
as Tommy Quigley 1949
The Jackpot
as Pete Spooner 1950
One Minute to Zero
as Maj. Carter 1952
A Dangerous Profession
as Roy Collins, aka Max Gibney 1949
I Was a Shoplifter
as Barkie Neff 1950