Robert H. Harris

Robert H. Harris, born Robert H. Hurwitz on July 15, 1911, in New York, New York, was an American character actor whose career spanned stage, television, and film. He died on November 30, 1981. He and his wife, actress Viola Harris, had a son, Steven Lee.

Harris began his theatrical training as a teenager at the Yiddish Art Theater before making his Broadway debut in 1937 in Schoolhouse on the Lot. His subsequent stage credits included Brooklyn, U.S.A. in 1941, Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'! in 1947, Foxy in 1963, and both Minor Miracle and Xmas in Las Vegas in 1965. His Broadway appearances spanned from 1938 to 1965, and the database also lists King Richard II among his credits. Beyond New York, Harris directed repertory theater in Boston and Hollywood, and in 1952 he served as managing director of the Woodstock Playhouse in Woodstock, New York.

Television became a major arena for Harris beginning in 1950, where he built a reputation playing shady and villainous characters. From 1953 to 1956 he portrayed Jake Goldberg in The Goldbergs, one of the few sympathetic roles of his career. In 1957 he took the lead role in The Court of Last Resort. He made eight appearances in Alfred Hitchcock Presents between 1956 and 1961, playing characters including Mr. Fox, Laurence Appleby, John Hurley, Albert Birch, LaFontaine, George Piper, Ben Prowdy, and Morty Lenton. He also appeared once in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, playing Dr. Perrigan in the episode Consider Her Ways, broadcast December 28, 1964. Harris appeared seven times in Perry Mason between 1958 and 1965, playing the murderer in three of those episodes, the murder victim in one, and the defendant in one. His Perry Mason credits included The Case of the Lonely Heiress, The Case of the Purple Woman, The Case of the Slandered Submarine, The Case of the Torrid Tapestry, The Case of the Dodging Domino, The Case of the Frustrated Folksinger, and The Case of the Runaway Racer. He played the scheming John Sukey in the Have Gun Will Travel episode Birds of a Feather in 1958. Additional television appearances included Peter Gunn, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, Ben Casey, The Asphalt Jungle, Land of the Giants, Rawhide, The Untouchables, Bonanza, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Virginian, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and the first season of Barnaby Jones in the episode Twenty Million Alibis, which aired May 6, 1973.

Harris's film work included a starring role in the 1958 horror film How to Make a Monster. He appeared as a rich cuckold in Elia Kazan's 1963 film America America and as an obsessive-compulsive consulting psychiatrist in Edward Dmytryk's 1965 film Mirage. His other film credits included Bundle of Joy (1956), The Invisible Boy (1957), Peyton Place (1957), The George Raft Story (1961), Apache Uprising (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), How Awful About Allan (1970), The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), and The Man in the Glass Booth (1975).