Robert Gist
Birth : 1924-06-16, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Death : 1998-05-21
History
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.
Director
Stephen Rojack is a decorated war vet who has now found success as an outspoken television personality. During a vicious argument with his wife, Deborah, Stephen snaps and pushes her from his high-rise apartment to her death. He manages to convince the authorities that she killed herself, then reignites an old affair with singer Cherry McMahon -- which doesn't sit well with her jealous mobster boyfriend, Nicky.
Director
Della Chappell is a very wealthy and incredibly reclusive woman. When a big company wants to develop some land that Della owns, the town sends out Barney Stafford to talk to her. She invites Barney over to negotiate the proposal. Barney soon takes a liking to Della's equally reclusive daughter Jenny Chappell. After spending some time with Jenny, he realizes that Della has a dark secret, one that keeps them from the outside world.
Scottish Captain
The terrible and trecherous Pendragon plans to gain the throne of Cornwall by getting the king to abdicate and to marry his lovely daughter. To help him he has his dreadful witches in his castle and his almost unstoppable sorcery. A giant under his control abducts the princess, but on the way home with her the giant meets farming lad Jack who slays him. This is only the beginning.
Chips McGann
A gang of career criminals plots the robbery of an armored car company's headquarters. Although the robbery itself goes off as planned, it's not long before the gang members are fighting among themselves over everybody's share of the loot and trying to avoid capture by the police, who are pouring all their resources into capturing the robbers. Based on a real-life 1950 Brinks Armored Car Co. robbery in Boston.
Lieutenant Watson
A World War II submarine commander finds himself stuck with a damaged sub, a con-man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.
Medicine Salesman
A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Dion O'Banion
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Matthews
A mean-spirited ship captain keeps his crew under his autocratic thumb while indulging his more refined side. But when his men rise up in mutiny, Larsen forces the cultured Van Weyden to help him quash the uprising.
Red
Fighting men in World War II learn the value of courage and quickness at the risk of losing their lives.
Dan Stenick
En route to Normandy, an American and a British officer reminisce in flashback about their romances with the same woman.
Hal
A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.
Miller
An ambulance driver gets involved with a rich girl that might have a darker side.
Maj. Carter
An idealistic United Nations official learns the harrowing truth about war when she falls in love with an American officer charged with the evacuation of civilians. As hostilities escalate, the officer and his small detachment are left to hold the line until allied forces can be brought into action.
Det. Leslie Hennessey
A deranged socialite accosts a tennis star with his theory that if two strangers trade murders, they can disguise their motives and avoid suspicion.
Pete Spooner
Bill Lawrence wins a bevy or prizes from a radio program, but ends up having to sell them all in order to pay the taxes he's incurred.
Barkie Neff
A police detective uses any means possible to trap a gang of shoplifters.
Roy Collins, aka Max Gibney
A cop-turned-bail bondsman gets involved in a murder investigation.
P.J. Pontiac
A cop investigates the shooting of another policeman... that may have been involved in crooked activities.
Earnie
Star major league pitcher Monty Stratton loses a leg in a hunting accident, but becomes determined to leave the game on his own terms.
Tommy Quigley
New York Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy is working hard on investigation about a series of murders related to an extremist group.
Department Store Window Dresser (uncredited)
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.
