Robert Shayne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Shayne (October 4, 1900 – November 29, 1992), born Robert Shaen Dawe, was an American actor whose career lasted for over 60 years. He was best known for portraying Inspector Bill Henderson in the American television series Adventures of Superman.

Shayne became an actor after having worked as a reporter at the Illustrated Daily Tab in Miami, Florida. His initial acting experience came with repertory companies in Alabama, including the Birmingham Players.

Shayne's first Broadway appearance came by 1931 in The Rap. His other Broadway shows include Yellow Jack (1934), The Cat and the Canary (1935), Whiteoaks (1938), with Ethel Barrymore, and Without Love (1942), with Katharine Hepburn.

Shayne began his film career in 1934, appearing in two features. In 1942, he became a contract actor with Warner Bros.. He played many character roles in movies and television, including a film series of Warner Bros. featurettes called the "Santa Fe Trail" series such as Wagon Wheels West, and as a mad scientist in the 1953 horror film The Neanderthal Man.

He appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, seated at a booth in a hotel bar, where his character meets Cary Grant's character, just as the latter is about to be kidnapped. He also had a small but pivotal role in the 1953 sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars as a scientist. He also enjoyed a brief rebirth in his career when he was cast as the blind newspaper vendor in The Flash television show. He was by this time actually blind and learned his lines by having his wife read them to him and then rehearse until he memorized them.

Shayne portrayed Police Inspector William "Bill" Henderson on the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman. He appeared sporadically in the early episodes of the series, in part because he came under HUAC scrutiny and was briefly blacklisted on unproven and unspecific charges of association with Communism. As the program evolved, especially in the color episodes, he was brought into more and more of them, to the point where he was a regular on the series.

North by Northwest

8.0

Columbo

8.1

Tora! Tora! Tora!

7.2

The Flash

7.4

Invaders from Mars

5.9

Christmas in Connecticut

7.0

The Giant Claw

4.8

The Blue Gardenia

6.5

The Million Dollar Duck

5.7

Son of Flubber

5.9

Ironside

6.9

Mr. Skeffington

6.7

Adventures of Superman

6.7

From the Terrace

6.7

Indestructible Man

4.3

Winning

5.9

Emergency!

7.8

Kronos

5.6

Land of the Giants

6.7

Three Strangers

6.4

Petticoat Junction

5.9

War of the Satellites

5.1

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.6

How to Make a Monster

5.6

Hollywood Canteen

7.3

Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus

6.1

The Threat

5.8

Teenage Cave Man

3.9

77 Sunset Strip

6.7

Nobody Lives Forever

6.2

Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman

6.0

Murder Is My Beat

5.8

Backlash

4.9

Hazel

7.0

The Neanderthal Man

4.1

San Antonio

5.7

Mission to Moscow

5.2

Without Warning!

5.9

Dance with Me, Henry

5.1

The Donna Reed Show

6.3

I Won't Play

6.1

A Tiger Walks

5.7

The Rebel Set

2.8

Death in Small Doses

5.0

Double Jeopardy

5.3

The Face of Marble

4.4

Spook Chasers

5.5

The Ring

4.7

The Naked Monster

4.0

Footsteps in the Night

5.3

Cage of Evil

5.5

Indian Uprising

6.2

The Doris Day Show

5.1

Missing Women

6.2

I, Mobster

6.5

Behind the Mask

4.6

Dynamite Pass

5.8

Why Must I Die

5.0

The Inside Story

6.5

The Third Man

6.7

Make Your Own Bed

5.8

Welcome Stranger

6.6

The Desperado

6.6

The Gentleman Tramp

6.6

Shine on Harvest Moon

6.0

The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok

4.5

Navy Log

4.5

26 Men

4.2

Experiment Alcatraz

6.5

Criminal Lawyer

6.7

Wednesday's Child

3.0

Rumble on the Docks

5.7

Let's Live a Little

6.3

Keep 'Em Rolling

6.0

Loaded Pistols

5.7

The Millionaire

5.0

Screen Director's Playhouse

6.5

Stories of the Century

5.7

20,000 Eyes

3.5

Hot Shots

5.0

Flight Nurse

5.5

Best Man Wins

7.0

The Strange Mrs. Crane

6.0

Marshal of Cedar Rock

5.5

The Specialist

3.5

Sheena: Queen of the Jungle

4.5

Surfside 6

5.0

The Living Christ

5.0

Wife Wanted

6.5

Federal Man

5.0

I Cover Big Town

6.0

Prince of Pirates

7.5

Mr. Walkie Talkie

5.0

Valley of the Redwoods

5.0

Wagon Wheels West

4.0

Frontier Days

4.0

State Penitentiary

6.5

Rider from Tucson

6.0

The Dakota Kid

5.0

Oklahoma Outlaws

5.0

Trial by Trigger

2.0

Eyes of the Jungle

0.0

Customs Agent

0.0

King of the Carnival

0.0

The Spirit of West Point

0.0

The Swordsman

0.0

I Ring Doorbells

0.0

Behind Southern Lines

0.0

Gun to Gun

0.0

When You're Smiling

0.0

Runaway Girl

0.0

Forgotten Women

0.0

Law of the Badlands

0.0

Roaring Guns

0.0

Big Timber

0.0

Trader Tom of the China Seas

0.0