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Theodore Roberts

American actor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodore Roberts
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Theodore Roberts (October 8, 1861 December 14, 1928)[1] was an American film and stage actor.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...
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Early life

Roberts was born in San Francisco, California.[2] He was a cousin of the stage actress Florence Roberts.[citation needed] His choice of a career disappointed his mother (who wanted him to become a minister) and his father (who wanted him to learn a trade).[3]

Career

Roberts debuted on stage at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco in 1880.[4] He went on to act with a barnstorming troupe on the West Coast but tired of that lifestyle after several years and left acting for a time to command a schooner owned by his father.[4]

On stage again in the 1890s he acted with Fanny Davenport in her play Gismonda (1894)[citation needed] and later in The Bird of Paradise (1912). His Broadway career began with We'Uns of Tennessee (1899) and ended with Believe Me Xantippe (1913).[5]

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Roberts as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923)
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Signed drawing of Theodore Roberts by Manuel Rosenberg for the Cincinnati Post, 1926

He started his film career in the 1910s in Hollywood, and was often associated in the productions of Cecil B. DeMille.[citation needed] He portrayed Moses in the biblical prologue of DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923).[6] One of his last film appearances was as the heroine's father in The Cat's Pajamas (1926).[7]

Roberts also performed in vaudeville.[8] After the end of a marriage, he spent six months in a New York jail because he refused to pay alimony.[3]

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Death

Roberts died of uremic poisoning in Hollywood, California at age 67 and is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[1]

Selected filmography

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Advertisement for Anton the Terrible in Moving Picture World, 1916
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References

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