--- name: "Robert Coote" canonical: "https://film.one/person/robert-coote" fi1m_id: "robert-coote" imdb_id: "nm0178509" tmdb_id: 92908 wikidata_id: "Q1486368" roles: ["Actor"] born: "4 February 1909" died: "26 November 1982" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 81 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-25T04:06:33.038340+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Robert Coote ## Identity Robert Coote - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/robert-coote - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** robert-coote - **IMDb ID:** nm0178509 - **TMDB ID:** 92908 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1486368 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Coote, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1486368, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178509/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/92908 Actor. Born 4 February 1909 in London, England, UK. Died 26 November 1982. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 4 February 1909, London, England, UK - **Died:** 26 November 1982 - **Active:** 1939–1951 - **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 68 (1), 1940s 88 (2), 1950s 80 (1) - **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Comedy 2, Fantasy 2, Romance 2, Action 1, Adventure 1 - **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $5m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Coote, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1486368, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178509/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/92908 ## Streaming the US now - **The Criterion Channel:** [*Othello*](https://film.one/film/othello.md) (80) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Robert Coote > Robert Coote was the Englishman who is sure of himself and wrong: the rich fool, the blimpish officer, the club bore. He played him in supporting parts for forty years, and his Roderigo for Welles shows why he kept getting asked. In Welles’s *Othello* (1951) Robert Coote wears a feathered hat and keeps handing over money. His Roderigo has been promised Desdemona and has paid for her several times, and every time he reappears it is to ask why nothing has happened yet. We laughed at him more than we expected to in a film that is otherwise shadow and dubbed thunder, and the reason is that Coote never lets Roderigo know he is the joke. He asks his question in earnest. The plot needs a rich man who cannot see what is in front of him, and Coote supplies one without once looking at the camera for credit. That was his trade. He left school at sixteen for touring repertory, reached the West End in 1931 and Hollywood late in the decade, where *Gunga Din* (1939) cast him as Sergeant Bertie Higginbotham and fixed the type: the bumbling English soldier who is fond of himself and not much use. He then spent six years in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a squadron leader and came back in 1946 to the same sort of part, starting with Bob Trubshawe in Powell and Pressburger’s *A Matter of Life and Death* (1946), a film we hold about as high as we hold anything. He was cast alongside David Niven four times, which tells you the kind of picture he was hired for. The parts were pompous aristocrats and military men, affable or blimpish, and the criticism that follows him is that he never got past them: a supporting player for forty years, rarely billed above the title after his early work. We do not think that is a criticism. Somebody has to be the man at the club who is wrong about everything, and it is harder than it looks; play him too broad and the scene dies, play him too knowing and the joke goes. Coote’s Roderigo gets it right, and that is the scale he worked at, a few minutes at a time. The stage gave him the part people remember. He originated Colonel Pickering in *My Fair Lady* on Broadway in 1956 and went on playing him in London, on tour and in the 1976 revival, and four years after the first Pickering he originated King Pellinore in *Camelot* (1960) for the same writers. Asked about Pickering in 1976, he said: “A dude is an extinct breed these days; dudes go back to the turn of the century, when Englishmen not only wore monocles but always got the girl in the end. Pickering doesn’t do either.” Nor did any part of his we have seen on screen. His last film part was Oliver Larding in *Theatre of Blood* (1973), a victim in a Vincent Price horror-comedy, and his last television role came in 1981. If you want to see what he did, go to *Othello* and wait for the hat. It will not take long, and he does not need long. ## Biography Robert Coote (4 February 1909 – 26 November 1982) was an English actor. Born in London, he was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex and began his stage career at the age of 16, performing in Britain, South Africa and Australia. He arrived in Hollywood in the late 1930s. His acting career was interrupted by service as a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. Coote appeared in supporting roles in many films, often as aristocrats or British military types. His credits include *Gunga Din* (1939), *A Matter of Life and Death* (1946) as Bob Trubshawe, *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947), *The Three Musketeers* (1948) and *Othello* (1951). On stage, he originated the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the original Broadway production of *My Fair Lady* (1956–62), for which he received a Tony Award nomination, and reprised it in the 1976–77 revival. He also originated the role of King Pellinore in *Camelot* (1960–63). He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the television series *The Rogues* (1964–65). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *Othello* (1951), Fi1m 80, as Roderigo — [page](https://film.one/film/othello.md) - *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947), Fi1m 84, as Mr. Coombe — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ghost-and-mrs-muir.md) - *A Matter of Life and Death* (1946), Fi1m 92, as Bob Trubshawe — [page](https://film.one/film/a-matter-of-life-and-death.md) - *Gunga Din* (1939), Fi1m 68, as Bertie Higginbotham — [page](https://film.one/film/gunga-din.md) ## Complete filmography (63) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Nero Wolfe* (1981), series, as Theodore Horstmann - *Filming Othello* (1979), Actor - *$weepstake$* (1979), series, as Butler - *Institute for Revenge* (1979), as Wellington - *Theatre of Blood* (1973), as Oliver Larding - *Up the Front* (1972), as General Burke - *Charley's Aunt* (1969), as Col. Sir Francis Chesney - *Prudence and the Pill* (1968), as Henry Hardcastle - *Kenner* (1968), Actor - *The Cool Ones* (1967), as Stanley Krum - *The Whitehall Worrier* (1967), series, Actor - *The Swinger* (1966), as Sir Hubert Charles - *Alice Through the Looking Glass* (1966), as The Red King - *A Man Could Get Killed* (1966), as Hatton / Jones - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Col. Sir Francis Chesney, Mr. Eager - *The Rogues* (1964), series, as Timmy St. Clair - *The Golden Head* (1964), Actor - *The V.I.P.s* (1963), as John Coburn - *The League of Gentlemen* (1960), as Bunny Warren - *Lord Arthur Savile's Crime* (1960), as Baines - *Rawhide* (1959), series, Actor - *The Horse's Mouth* (1958), as Sir William Beeder - *Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse* (1958), series, as Terry - *Merry Andrew* (1958), as Dudley Larabee - *The Swan* (1956), as Capt. Wunderlich - *The Constant Husband* (1955), as The Best Man - *The Prisoner of Zenda* (1952), as Fritz von Tarlenheim - *The Merry Widow* (1952), as Marquis De Crillon - *Scaramouche* (1952), as Gaston Binet - *Othello* (1951), as Roderigo — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/othello.md) - *The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel* (1951), as British Medical Officer - *Soldiers Three* (1951), as Maj. Mercer - *The Elusive Pimpernel* (1950), as Sir Andrew ffoulkes - *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as Stephen, Joe Worton, Lawton - *Robert Montgomery Presents* (1950), series, as Sir Archibald Bruern - *The Red Danube* (1949), as Brigadier C.M.V. Catlock - *Studio One* (1948), series, as Dr. Gordon - *The Three Musketeers* (1948), as Aramis - *Berlin Express* (1948), as James Sterling - *The Exile* (1947), as Dick Pinner - *Forever Amber* (1947), as Sir Thomas Dudley - *Lured* (1947), as Detective Wilson - *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947), as Mr. Coombe — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ghost-and-mrs-muir.md) - *A Matter of Life and Death* (1946), as Bob Trubshawe — Fi1m 92, [page](https://film.one/film/a-matter-of-life-and-death.md) - *Cloak and Dagger* (1946), as Cronin - *Forever and a Day* (1943), as Blind Officer - *Commandos Strike at Dawn* (1942), as Robert Bowen - *You Can't Fool Your Wife* (1940), as Battincourt - *Vigil in the Night* (1940), as Dr. Caley - *Nurse Edith Cavell* (1939), as Bungey - *Bad Lands* (1939), as Eaton - *The House of Fear* (1939), as Robert Morton - *Gunga Din* (1939), as Bertie Higginbotham — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/gunga-din.md) - *Mr. Moto's Last Warning* (1939), as Rollo Venables - *The Girl Downstairs* (1938), as Karl - *Blond Cheat* (1938), as Gilbert Potts - *A Yank at Oxford* (1938), as Wavertree - *The Sheik Steps Out* (1937), as Lord Eustace Byington - *The Thirteenth Chair* (1937), as Stanby - *Rangle River* (1936), as Reggie Mannister, Flight-Lieutenant - *Loyalties* (1933), as Robert - *Sally in Our Alley* (1931), as Waiter At Party - *Best Of Enemies*, series, Actor ## Gallery - ![Marius Goring, David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter and Robert Coote in a production still for the British film A Matter of Life and Death.](https://film.one/media/person/59108/gallery-2d6d3d71dcac.jpg) Marius Goring, David Niven, Roger Livesey, Kim Hunter and Robert Coote in a production still for the British film A Matter of Life and Death. — Eric Gray, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/A_Matter_of_Life_and_Death_-_Production_still.jpg/1280px-A_Matter_of_Life_and_Death_-_Production_still.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Photo of Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison and Robert Coote from My Fair Lady. In this scene, Eliza's lessons have finally paid off; Eliza, Higgins and Colonel Picker (1957)](https://film.one/media/person/59108/gallery-a66628dbfada.jpg) Photo of Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison and Robert Coote from My Fair Lady. In this scene, Eliza's lessons have finally paid off; Eliza, Higgins and Colonel Picker (1957) — Richard Maney/Photo by Friedman-Abeles, NYC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Julie_Andrews_Rex_Harrison_Robert_Coote_My_Fair_Lady.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of Robert Coote (Colonel Pickering), Stanley Holloway (Alfred P. Doolittle) and Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins) from the Broadway production of My Fair Lady. (1957)](https://film.one/media/person/59108/gallery-fe4b72bc9b41.jpg) Photo of Robert Coote (Colonel Pickering), Stanley Holloway (Alfred P. Doolittle) and Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins) from the Broadway production of My Fair Lady. (1957) — Richard Maney-Photo by Friedman-Abeles, NYC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Robert_Coote_Stanley_Holloway_Rex_Harrison_My_Fair_Lady.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Robert Coote](https://film.one/media/person/59108/gallery-85ec48c8cbe9.jpg) Robert Coote — Image via TMDB - ![Robert Coote](https://film.one/media/person/59108/gallery-6b42f2f7d044.jpg) Robert Coote — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical 1957: Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (nominated) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/robert-coote