Robert Grandin(1908-1990)

Robert Grandin's story could only happen in Hollywood. After college Grandin pursued a career in singing and won the 1930 Chicago Baritone competition and from then on, he was destined to spend a career in the entertainment industry. After he won the contest he got a job as a signer on the WGN radio network but he wanted to further his career. Hence, he moved to Wisconsin to California where he was signed by MGM as a singer and eventually got a role in The 1937 Jeanette MacDonald movie "The Firefly." By the early 1940s Grandin's career had started to stall and he began touring with a national tour of The Student Prince. In 1948, he was selected to play Jud Fry in Oklahoma for an Australian tour. He was one of six people who were chosen to appear in the Australian production and he spent a few years touring Australia with the group when it closed, he returned to the United States to do another tour of the Student Prince.

During the 1950s, Grandin's career had come to a complete downturn and he knew he couldn't tour doing musicals forever so he found work as an extra and a stand-in for movies. Grandin's appearance had aged from a good-looking contract player to a rougher-looking cowboy and gangster type so he was frequently cast as a barfly and good in television and movies in the 1950s through the 1970s.

While he may not be remembered by many people today, Robert Grandin got further than most in Hollywood where his profession took him to various parts of the world where he got to perform in front of thousands of people leaving behind a legacy of entertainment and countless film and television appearances.