Robert Colbert
Encyclopedia
Robert Colbert is an American actor most noted for his leading role portraying Dr. Doug Phillips on the TV series The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...

and his two appearances as a third Maverick brother in Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...

.

Colbert first acted when he was a soldier based on Okinawa. He was a Clerk Typist with a Military Police unit who worked as a disc jockey for Radio Free Asia
Radio Free Asia
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a radio station and Internet news service. RFA was founded by an act of the US Congress and is operated by the Broadcasting Board of Governors . The RFA is supported in part by grants from the federal government of the United States...

 in the evenings. A woman in Air Force Special Services heard his voice and recruited him to act in a performance of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a two-act play by Herman Wouk, which he adapted from his own novel, The Caine Mutiny.Wouk's novel covered a long stretch of time aboard the USS Caine, a Navy minesweeper in the Pacific...

. Hooked on acting Colbert returned to the US and acted on stage where he was noticed by Mickey Shaughnessy
Mickey Shaughnessy
Joseph Michael "Mickey" Shaughnessy was an Irish American character actor who specialized in playing lovable, but not-too-bright lugs...

 who recommended him to a talent agency.

Colbert appeared in a number of minor films, including Have Rocket, Will Travel
Have Rocket, Will Travel
Have Rocket, Will Travel is a 1959 comedy film starring The Three Stooges. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita . Released by Columbia Pictures, the feature was produced to capitalize on the comedy trio's late 1950s resurgence in popularity...

starring the Three Stooges and Amazon Women on the Moon, and was signed to a contract with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 and subsequently cast in the feature film A Fever in the Blood
A Fever in the Blood
A Fever in the Blood is a 1961 movie featuring a roster of Warner Bros. television contract players, often miscast according to the film's producer and screenwriter Roy Huggins in his Archive of American Television interview, about crooked political dealings. Young Efrem Zimbalist, Jr...

(1961) along with many guest apearances on television series.

In 1961 Colbert was forced by the studio to dress exactly as lookalike James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

 had in Garner's earlier role of Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick is an American Western series starring James Garner in the role that made him famous in the 1957 series Maverick: a professional poker player traveling alone year after year through the Old West from riverboat to saloon...

 to play a character called "Brent Maverick." Thinking of the inevitable comparisons to Garner that were bound to ensue, Colbert famously said to his bosses, "Put me in a dress and call me Brenda, but don't do this to me!" Colbert played the part in two episodes and was not called back for the following season since the studio decided to alternate new episodes featuring only Bret and Brent's brother "Bart Maverick" (Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...

) with reruns starring the popular Garner during the series' fifth and final season.

In 1966-67 Colbert played the part of Doug Phillips in the Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...

 science fiction TV series, The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...

, the second lead in a show about two time travelers.

Colbert also appeared as the character Stuart Brooks, (original cast member), on the TV soap opera The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...

from 1973 to 1983. His character Stuart Brooks died off-screen sometime before his wife Liz Foster returned to town in 1984. Stuart's young son-in-law, Snapper Foster, was played by a then unknown David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff
David Michael Hasselhoff is an American actor, singer, producer and businessman. He is best known for his lead roles as Michael Knight in the popular 1980s US series Knight Rider and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the series Baywatch...

.

In 1981, Colbert and Robert Culp were suggested by CBS as possible replacements for Larry Hagman's J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing
John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...

, after Hagman decided to hold out for more money (like his friend Carroll O'Connor
Carroll O'Connor
John Carroll O'Connor best known as Carroll O'Connor, was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades...

 had successfully done in 1974) but Hagman returned to the series.

Colbert was married to dancer/songwriter Dotty Harmony in 1961 for 15 years. Harmony wrote for Metric Music with Sharon Sheeley and had songs recorded by Rick Nelson. They have two children Cami and Clay. Cami is married to film maker Jon Freeman (Flesh Wound Films) who produces the highly successful "Crusty Demon" series of DVDs.

Today Robert Colbert is 'retired' though he still makes occasional cameo appearances, takes part in science fiction convention
Science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...

s all across America, and enjoys celebrity golf tournaments for fund-raising events.

External links

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