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Marion's Leading Men Robert Montgomery Henry Montgomery, Jr.
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Robert Montgomery began his acting career on the New York stage in the early 1920s, and quickly became an established Broadway performer. He joined the exodus of actors from the Broadway stage to the Hollywood studios when sound revolutionized the American motion picture industry in 1929. His film debut in So This is College (1929) typecast the good-looking Montgomery for years as the debonair, carefree playboy. College life captured the imagination of American movie-goers, and Robert Montgomery was the ideal campus heart throb. Tall, good-looking and naturally charming, Montgomery portrayed the man-about-town with ease. While ideal in the light comedies that he was frequently cast in, the few ventures Montgomery made into drama were exceptional. The Big House (1930), the Academy Award winning Cosmopolitan Production, cast Montgomery in the role of a coward and a prison snitch, a role that established him as a dramatic actor. After a distinguished military career during World War II, Montgomery returned to Hollywood to direct as well as star in many successful movies. He made the transition from the big screen to television with Robert Montgomery Presents, a highly regarded drama he produced, directed, hosted, and sometimes starred in, for seven years. In 1955 he won a Tony award for best director on Broadway for the play, The Desperate Hours. Marion Davies and Robert Montgomery co-starred in Blondie of the Follies (1932) for M-G-M, and were together for Marion's last motion picture in 1937, Ever Since Eve for Warner Brothers. He joined in the costume parties at Ocean House in Santa Monica, and was a guest at the "working weekends" for Cosmopolitan cast members at San Simeon. |
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