Robert Foulk

Robert C. Foulk (May 5, 1908 – February 25, 1989) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television. Before pursuing acting, he studied architectural draftsmanship at the University of Pennsylvania, a discipline he continued to practice alongside his performing career. A Chicago Tribune article noted that he maintained his involvement in architecture as a form of therapy against the pressures of performing.

Foulk's stage career ran from 1931 to 1936 and included several notable Broadway productions. He appeared in two mountings of As Husbands Go, in 1930 and 1932, as well as the comedy Boy Meets Girl in 1935 and Brother Rat in 1936. His Broadway credits also include John Brown's Body and What a Life. He additionally served as an aide to producer-director George Abbott and went on to direct productions in venues including Palos Verdes.

In television, Foulk became a prolific character actor frequently cast in law-enforcement roles. He appeared in thirteen episodes of the NBC anthology series The Loretta Young Show between 1953 and 1959, and played Ed Davis in five episodes of Father Knows Best during its NBC run from 1954 to 1957. In 1956, he portrayed Jackley in the Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Club serial "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure." The following year, he took on the role of outlaw Curly Bill Brocius in three episodes of the western series Tombstone Territory: "Gunslinger from Galeville," "Ride Out at Noon," and "Skeleton Canyon Massacre."

From 1958 to 1962, Foulk portrayed Sheriff H. Miller in the CBS series Lassie, one of his most sustained television roles. He also held a recurring role as bartender Joe Kingston in the NBC western Wichita Town from 1959 to 1960, and made five appearances on The Rifleman in a variety of roles, including a blacksmith in three episodes and separate characters in two others. He appeared four times on CBS's Perry Mason, consistently playing law-enforcement figures, including in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Buried Clock." On NBC's Bonanza, he made thirteen appearances, most often as a sheriff or deputy. He played the sheriff of Cloverville, California in the two-part Untouchables episode "The Big Train," which centered on an attempt to free Al Capone during his transfer to Alcatraz. In the early 1970s, he made four guest appearances on CBS's Here's Lucy, and he also held recurring roles as Mr. Wheeler and former Hooterville phone company president Roy Trendall across sixteen episodes of CBS's Green Acres. In 1960, he guest starred in the western series Bat Masterson as Judge Pete Perkins, a corrupt judge, in the season two episode "Welcome to Paradise."

On film, Foulk played Sheriff Brady in the 1958 western The Left Handed Gun. In his personal life, he was married to actress Alice Frost during the 1930s. In 1947, he married Barbara Slater, an actress who had appeared in two Three Stooges short features and retired from Hollywood that same year. They remained married until Foulk's death in February 1989.