Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
122
Gender
Male
Birthday
May 18, 1914 ( 75 years old )
Place of Birth
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Also Known As
Bob Wilke
Robert Wilke
Robert Joseph Wilke
Robert J. Wilke
Prolific American character actor of primarily villainous roles. The son of German parents, Cincinnati feed-store manager August Wilke and his wife Rose, Robert Joseph Wilke grew up in Cincinnati. He worked as a lifeguard at a Miami, Florida, hotel, where he made contacts in the film business. He was able to obtain work as a stuntman and continued as such until the mid-'40s, when he began getting actual roles in low-budget westerns and serials. A prominent appearance as one of the heavies in Le train sifflera trois fois (1952) led to work in higher-quality films. He worked extensively in television as well as movies, and became an enormously familiar face, though a fairly anonymous one to the general public. His weathered visage made him a perfect western bad guy, but he occasionally played sympathetic parts as well, as in Les moissons du ciel (1978). An expert golfer, he was said by his friend Claude Akins to have earned more money on the golf course than he ever did in movies. He died in 1989. -
Known For
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1954-12-23High Noon
1952-06-09Spartacus
1960-10-13Flaming Fury
1949-07-28Night Passage
1957-07-24Tony Rome
1967-11-10The Las Vegas Story
1952-01-30Hitchhike to Happiness
1945-07-16El magnifico extranjero
1966-08-26Man of the West
1958-06-20