Robert Lansing


Actor

About

Also Known As
Robert Brown
Birth Place
San Diego, California, USA
Born
June 05, 1928
Died
October 23, 1994
Cause of Death
Cancer

Biography

While he played a number of different parts in film and television, some of Robert Lansing's most recognizable roles were as cops or men with military backgrounds. The tough-looking actor--who took his stage name from Michigan's state capital because another thespian was using his birth name--started his career in the 1950s, and established himself as a small-screen leading man by the ea...

Biography

While he played a number of different parts in film and television, some of Robert Lansing's most recognizable roles were as cops or men with military backgrounds. The tough-looking actor--who took his stage name from Michigan's state capital because another thespian was using his birth name--started his career in the 1950s, and established himself as a small-screen leading man by the early '60s. He appeared in the 1961 crime drama "87th Precinct," based on a series of novels by Ed McBain, in which he played the driven Detective Steve Carella. In this program and many others, Lansing's noticeably bushy eyebrows lent him an unkemptness that made him seem more human, and helped set him apart from other star actors on television. Later that decade, he played Brigadier General Frank Savage in "12 O'Clock High," based on the movie of the same name (he reprised the role first played by Gregory Peck), although his participation lasted only one season. An appearance in a '68 episode of "Star Trek" entitled "Assignment: Earth" was intended to lead to a spin-off series for Lansing but unfortunately, the show never aired. During the '70s and early '80s, his most notable work was guest-starring in various series--although he did fight giant mutated insects in the '77 B-film "Empire of the Ants." Then came a supporting part in "The Equalizer," an '80s action series about an urban vigilante. He played Control, the head of a secret agency who provided the main character with assignments.

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Eye For An Eye, An (1966) -- (Movie Clip) Cut Out That Damn Crying! First scene remarkable for its cruelty, Slim Pickens is Ike Slant, and he darn sure shoots a baby and burns a house around it, escaping with his cohorts before Robert Lansing (who shares top billing with Pickens and Gloria Talbott), as Talion, arrives too late, in the low cost Western An Eye For An Eye, 1966.
Eye For An Eye, An (1966) -- (Movie Clip) Can You Shoot That Thing Straight? Talion (mostly TV star Robert Lansing) has just begun riding after the gang who killed his family, especially a guy named Slant, when he comes upon Patrick Wayne, in one of his first movies without his father John, as gunslinger Benny, with whom he may have a shared interest, in An Eye For An Eye, 1966.
Eye For An Eye, An (1966) -- (Movie Clip) It's Been A Long Ride For-now allied seeking respectively revenge and bounty, Talion (Robert Lansing) and Benny (Patrick Wayne) have waited for the arrival of gang-leader Slant (Slim Pickens), who can’t resist more cruel taunting, leading to a shootout, in the Embassy Pictures Western An Eye For An Eye, 1966.
Empire Of The Ants (1977) -- (Movie Clip) I Hope You've Learned Your Lesson Jack Kosslyn and Ilse Earl are the Lawsons, skeptical participants in real estate tour staged by Joan Collins (as “Marilyn Fryser”), and they discover deception, followed by the first appearance of ants, super-sized by nuclear waste, the other customers, for now, unaware, in Empire Of The Ants, 1977.
Empire Of The Ants (1977) -- (Movie Clip) The Next Dominant Life Form The narrator is uncredited and the derivation from the H.G. Wells short story is overstated, but producer-director Bert I. Gordon manages a dramatic enough opening, establishing a nuclear component during the credits, in Empire Of The Ants, 1977, starring Joan Collins.
Bittersweet Love (1976) -- (Movie Clip) Vancouver On Saturday Hollywood vets start appearing now, as about-to-marry Patricia (Meredith Baxter) and Michael (Scott Hylands) meet his parents (Celest Holm, Robert Lansing) in Canada, then we meet her parents (Lana Turner, Robert Alda), not in time for the wedding, in Bittersweet Love, 1976.

Bibliography