Robert Greig

Robert Greig, born Arthur Alfred Bede Greig on 27 December 1879 near Melbourne, Australia, was an Australian-American actor whose career spanned stage and screen across several decades. A nephew of Australian politician and solicitor William Bede Dalley, Greig was commonly known as "Bob." He married fellow actor Beatrice Denver Holloway in 1912. Following a successful career in Melbourne, Greig and his wife traveled to the United States, where he would establish himself as a recognizable character performer on both Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Greig made his Broadway debut in 1928 in the operetta Countess Maritza. His next Broadway production was Animal Crackers, the Marx Brothers comedy in which he played the butler Hives. He went on to appear in Berkeley Square, Tonight or Never, and Great Lady, with his Broadway career spanning from 1928 to 1938.

His stage role as Hives in Animal Crackers carried directly into his film career when he reprised the part in the 1930 film adaptation, marking his motion picture debut. The butler role established a pattern that defined much of his screen work, as he appeared in more than 100 films between 1930 and 1949, frequently cast as servants and attendants. He appeared again with the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers (1932), this time playing a biology professor. That same year he was featured in the short film Jitters the Butler.

Greig periodically stepped outside the servant archetype in notable productions. In Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934), starring Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, he played the Duke of Weskit. He portrayed Uncle John to Irene Dunne's Theodora in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), and in Algiers (1938) he played Giraux, the wealthy protector of Hedy Lamarr's character.

During the 1940s, Greig became a regular presence in the films of writer-director Preston Sturges, appearing in six productions as part of Sturges's informal company of character actors. Among those collaborations were Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, and The Palm Beach Story, in which he played a member of the Ale and Quail Club. His final film credit was Bride of Vengeance (1949), a Paulette Goddard vehicle in which he played an uncredited Councillor.

Greig died in Los Angeles on 27 June 1958 at the age of 78 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.