Robert Wagner

Robert John Wagner Jr. was born on February 10, 1930, in Detroit. His father, Robert John Wagner Sr., was a traveling salesman for Ford Motor Company, and his mother, Thelma Hazel Alvera Boe, had worked as a telephone operator. He had an older sister, Mary Scott. His mother’s parents were Norwegian immigrants who married in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she was from; his father’s parents were German, and he was a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1937, the family moved to Bel-Air, an upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.

Wagner’s screen career began after an unsuccessful test for Fred Zinnemann’s *Teresa* (1951). He was represented by Albert R. Broccoli, made an uncredited debut in *The Happy Years* (1950), and was signed by agent Henry Willson to a contract with 20th Century Fox. He described himself as starting as an “ingénue” at 19, playing the boy next door, and felt he could work his way up to better parts under studio head Darryl Zanuck. His first Fox film was *Halls of Montezuma* (1951), a World War II movie with Richard Widmark. He played similar supporting roles in *The Frogmen* (1951), also with Widmark and fellow contract player Jeffrey Hunter, and the comedy *Let’s Make It Legal* (1951) with Claudette Colbert. He first gained real attention with a small, showy part as a shell-shocked soldier in *With a Song in My Heart* (1952). Fox then gave him better roles: the romantic lead in *Stars and Stripes Forever* (1952), a John Philip Sousa biopic with Clifton Webb; supporting roles in John Ford’s *What Price Glory* (1952) with James Cagney and Dan Dailey, and *Titanic* (1953) with Webb; and a minor Western, *The Silver Whip* (1953) with Rory Calhoun.

Wagner got his first starring role in *Beneath the 12-Mile Reef* (1953), which had poor reviews but was a hit as only the third film shot in CinemaScope. He then played Spencer Tracy’s son in the Western *Broken Lance* (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk, and starred in the expensive but poorly reviewed *Prince Valiant* (1954)—he later joked his wig made him look like Jane Wyman. He teamed with Jeffrey Hunter again in *White Feather* (1955). Borrowed by Paramount, he played Spencer Tracy’s brother in *The Mountain* (1956), directed by Dmytryk, and earned more acclaim for the lead in *A Kiss Before Dying* (1956), made for Crown Productions and released through United Artists. Back at Fox, he appeared in the war film *Between Heaven and Hell* (1956) and played Jesse James in Nicholas Ray’s *The True Story of Jesse James* (1957), with Hunter as Frank James. Both were box office disappointments, and Wagner struggled to become a top star. He led *Stopover Tokyo* (1957), and later reflected that Fox’s output had shrunk from 65 films a year in 1950 to about 30, forcing him into Cinemascope spectacles he felt ill-suited for. He supported Robert Mitchum in *The Hunters* (1958), appeared in *In Love and War* (1958), had a cameo in *Mardi Gras* (1958), and supported Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds in *Say One for Me* (1959). To revive his career, he co-starred with his then-wife Natalie Wood in *All the Fine Young Cannibals* (1960) for MGM. In January 1961, they formed Rona Productions, which signed a three-picture deal with Columbia Pictures starting with *Sail a Crooked Ship* (1961). He also had a deal for one more Fox film, either *Solo* or *The Comancheros*.

Wagner is best known for starring in the TV series *It Takes a Thief* (1968–1970), *Switch* (1975–1978), and *Hart to Hart* (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on *Two and a Half Men* (2007–2008) and *NCIS* (2010–2019). In film, he is recognized for playing Number 2 in the *Austin Powers* trilogy (1997, 1999, 2002), and for roles in *Prince Valiant* (1954), *A Kiss Before Dying* (1956), *The Pink Panther* (1963), *Harper* (1966), *The Towering Inferno* (1974), and *The Concorde... Airport '79* (1979).

Wagner’s first wife, actress Natalie Wood, died under mysterious circumstances in 1981. In 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department named him a “person of interest” in the investigation into her death. Wagner has denied any involvement.