Robert Gist

Actor · Director

Chicago, Illinois, USA

October 1, 1917

Biography

Robert Marion Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director. Gist was reared around the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring another boy in a fistfight, Gist instead ended up at Chicago's Hull House, a settlement house originally established by social worker Jane Addams. There he first became interested in acting. Work in Chicago radio was followed by stage acting roles in Chicago and on Broadway (in the long-running Harvey with Josephine Hull).[citation needed] While acting in Harvey, he made his motion picture debut in 20th Century-Fox's Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Gist was also seen on Broadway in director Charles Laughton's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954) with Henry Fonda and John Hodiak. While shooting Operation Petticoat (1959), Gist told director Blake Edwards that he was interested in directing. Edwards later hired Gist to helm episodes of the TV series Peter Gunn. Gist also directed episodes of TV shows Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and many others.