Robert Cornthwaite

 Posted on September 21, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  612 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Actor

Robert Cornthwaite, who appeared onstage and in films and TV for more than five decades, died July 20 in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was as an actor in theatre, film and television from 1950 to 2005, passed away, July 20, at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He was 89.

Born in St. Helens, Oregon, he graduated from USC and started out in a 1935 production of “Twelfth Night” in Portland, Oregon.

He worked in radio in Southern California before serving in the Air Force during World War II. Upon returning to Hollywood, he worked in radio and then a character actor in films and TV.

He played a doctor three times: Dr. Carrington, in the 1951 “The Thing,” “Dr. Pryor,” in the 1953 “The War of the Worlds” and Dr. Shelby, in 1962’s “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”

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Cornthwaite said he preferred theater as it was “far more liberating for the actor.” He performed live and televised theater for the Four Star Playhouse, “The General Electric Theater,” “Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre” and the La Jolla Playhouse. He appeared in scores of TV shows until he was well into his 70s, including “The Twilight Zone,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Get Smart,” “Batman,” “Dragnet,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Quincy M.E.,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “Dynasty,” and “The Pretender.”

He is survived by a brother.

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