Douglass Montgomery

Robert Douglass Montgomery was born on October 29, 1909, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Chester Montgomery, a jeweler, and Leona Smith. He completed his secondary education at Los Angeles High School and gained early acting experience at the Pasadena Community Playhouse before pursuing a professional career in New York, where he performed under the name Douglass Montgomery.

Montgomery's Broadway career spanned from 1926 to 1959 and included appearances in Fata Morgana, They Knew What They Wanted, American Dream, Men Must Fight, and The Legend of Lizzie, among other productions. His stage work in New York established him as a working presence in American theater across more than three decades.

His film career began at M-G-M in 1930, where the studio credited him as Kent Douglass to prevent confusion with their contracted star Robert Montgomery. In that period he appeared in supporting roles in pictures including Paid and Five and Ten. After departing MGM in 1932, he reverted to the name Douglass Montgomery. One of his most prominent screen roles came in 1933 when he played Theodore "Laurie" Laurence opposite Katharine Hepburn in Little Women. He later portrayed Johnny Hollis in the 1945 British production The Way to the Stars.

During World War II, Montgomery served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Following the war he relocated to Great Britain, where he continued making films, including Woman to Woman (1947) and Forbidden (1949). He subsequently returned to the United States and appeared in several television productions, among them Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951), Cameo Theatre (1952), Robert Montgomery Presents (1952), and Kraft Television Theater (1954).

On March 14, 1952, Montgomery married British actress Kay Young, born Kathleen Tamar Young, at Bethlehem Federated Church. She had previously been married to film actor Michael Wilding, from whom she had divorced the prior year. The marriage lasted until Montgomery's death. He died of spinal cancer in Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 23, 1966, at the age of 56, and was cremated, with his ashes left to his widow.