Theodore Roberts

Theodore Roberts (October 8, 1861 – December 14, 1928) was an American stage and film actor born in San Francisco, California. He was a cousin of stage actress Florence Roberts. His parents held differing ambitions for him: his mother hoped he would enter the ministry, while his father preferred he learn a trade. Neither wish was fulfilled.

Roberts made his stage debut at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco in 1880. He subsequently traveled with a barnstorming troupe along the West Coast, though he eventually grew dissatisfied with that way of life and stepped away from acting for a period, during which time he captained a schooner belonging to his father. He returned to the stage in the 1890s, appearing alongside Fanny Davenport in her production of Gismonda in 1894. Roberts also performed in vaudeville at various points in his career.

His Broadway career spanned from 1899 to 1913. It opened with We'Uns of Tennessee in 1899 and included productions such as Hamlet, The Squaw Man, Confession, The Bird of Paradise in 1912, and concluded with Believe Me Xantippe in 1913.

Roberts transitioned into film work in the 1910s in Hollywood, where he became closely associated with the productions of director Cecil B. DeMille. Among his most prominent screen roles was his portrayal of Moses in the biblical prologue of DeMille's The Ten Commandments in 1923. One of his final film appearances came in The Cat's Pajamas in 1926, in which he played the heroine's father.

In his personal life, Roberts spent six months in a New York jail after refusing to pay alimony following the end of a marriage. He died of uremic poisoning in Hollywood, California at the age of 67 and is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.