Roy Roberts looked as though he expected to be obeyed. We value the firmness he brought to supporting parts, though repeated casting as men in charge left little room for surprise.
Fi1m perspective
With his stocky build, silvery hair and trimmed moustache, Roy Roberts looks ready to tell somebody what the regulations permit. He was regularly cast as mayors, police captains, bankers and executives. We value the immediate plausibility he brought to these supporting parts, in comedy as well as drama. Repeated casting made him easy to recognise, though it could also make the character seem settled before he had much to do.
In John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), he is the Mayor, a fitting place in a Western concerned with people learning to live together. We were moved by the patience Ford gives Henry Fonda's courtship, because he makes the effort of getting close to another person worth our attention. Roberts belongs to that wider community, rather than being asked to carry the feeling himself. The supporting characters do not all get the space they deserve, which matters in a film so interested in its community.
The Reckless Moment (1949) gives him a harder part as Nagel in Max Ophüls's blackmail thriller. That familiar firmness is useful here: Roberts can make an unpleasant man seem accustomed to having his way. Yet Joan Bennett's unforced distress and James Mason's persuasive threat remain the stronger reasons to watch. Ophüls keeps the film tense, but its coolness holds us at a distance when we need to care.
The same usefulness runs through his film work of the 1940s and 1950s. His gangster Ben Tucker in Force of Evil (1948) gives the respectable-looking authority figure a criminal occupation; in House of Wax (1953), he is Vincent Price's crooked business partner, Matthew Burke. These parts exploit a readily recognisable type. The risk of such casting is repetition, and Roberts's reputation rests on reliability rather than individually celebrated performances.
From the mid-1950s, his work shifted primarily to television, including stern or exasperated captains, bank presidents and fathers. Comedy could use the same expectation of obedience, then give the man in charge something to be exasperated about. Chinatown (1974) finds him back in municipal office as Mayor Bagby. Begin with My Darling Clementine, and notice the people Ford has placed around Fonda.
Biography
Roy Roberts (born Roy Barnes Jones) was an American character actor. Over a career spanning more than 40 years he appeared in more than 900 stage and screen productions.
He began acting on stage in a Tampa stock company, later toured in stock theatre and made his Broadway debut in 1931. His film work began with the 1936 short Gold Bricks; from 1943 he took supporting roles in numerous features, including My Darling Clementine (1946) as the Mayor, House of Wax (1953), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Chinatown (1974). He also appeared regularly on television, notably as Captain Simon P. Huxley in The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1956–1960) and in guest roles on series such as Bewitched, Bonanza and Perry Mason.
Roberts died in Los Angeles on 28 May 1975.
