Robert Gist(1917-1998)
- Actor
- Director
Robert Gist was a tough kid who grew up around the Chicago stockyards
during the Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring another boy
in a fistfight, Gist instead ended up in Chicago's Hull House, a
settlement house where 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). While acting in
"Harvey", he made his film debut in New York-shot scenes for 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) in
Key West, Florida, Gist told director
Blake Edwards that he was
interested in directing; Edwards later hired him to helm episodes of
the TV series Peter Gunn (1958).
Gist has also directed for TV's
Naked City (1958),
The Twilight Zone (1959),
Route 66 (1960) and many others.
