He was married twice. His first wife, whom he married in 1937 and divorced two years later. was Florence Rice, daughter of sportswriter Grantland Rice.[3] He married Diana Barrymore in 1950.[citation needed] The five-year marriage, which ended with his death, was stormy, with repeated separations, reconciliations and police calls for domestic disturbances.[4] Barrymore chronicled their bouts with alcoholism in her 1957 autobiography, Too Much, Too Soon, which she dedicated to him.[citation needed]
Acting career
He started his career with a Buffalo, New York, Community Theater Group.[2]
His career began in earnest in 1936 after being signed by a Universal Pictures talent scout while playing Duke Mantee in a summer-stock production of The Petrified Forest.[2][3] Wilcox worked in 18 Hollywood films before World War II, starting with the role of the Intern in Let Them Live.[5] (Another source states that he played the romantic lead in 26 films, before going into the service for World War II.[2]) He was a contract player with Universal Studios, unhappy with his typecasting in "cops and robbers" roles.[5] He is perhaps best known for playing Bob Wayne and his alter ego, "The Copperhead", in the 1940 film serialMysterious Doctor Satan.[6]
He was inducted into the United States Army February 27, 1942.[7] He served 38 months in the United States Army during World War II, rising from private to the rank of captain, and seeing action in Belgium, France and Germany.[5][8] Following the war, he returned to Rochester, and appeared in an amateur production of Soldier's Wife, a quiet comedy by Rose Franken about a veteran returning from the Pacific, presented in January 1946 by the Rochester Community Players.[5] Wilcox, according to a contemporary news report, was considering whether to go back to Hollywood or to work in professional theater.[5] his post-war work was mostly on the stage.[4]
His last stage performance was in the road show Pajama Top, costarring his wife, Diana Barrymore.[9] The production, an English translation of the French comic success, Moumou, was directed by Leonard Altobell (also a native of Rochester) and opened its national tour at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester November 8, 1954.[2]
Death
Wilcox died of a heart attack on June 11, 1955, while riding a train from New York City to Rochester to visit his mother.[4][9] A porter discovered his body in a Pullman berth when he tried to wake the actor at the Rochester train station stop.[9] He was 45 years old. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery.[10]
References
^Letter to the Editor of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle newspaper, January 1946; archived in the 1944-1946 Scrapbook of the Rochester Community Players collection, Local History Department, Rochester Public Library
^ abcdefArticle by Hamilton B. Allen, Rochester Times Union newspaper, October 27, 1954; archived in the 1954-1955 Scrapbook of the Rochester Community Players collection, Local History Department, Rochester Public Library
^ abcdeArticle, Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, Rochester NY: "Footlights? Film? Actor must decide", January 1946; archived in the 1944-1946 Scrapbook of the Rochester Community Players collection, Local History Department, Rochester Public Library
^Amazon.com: Mysterious Doctor Satan [VHS] : Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Wilcox, William Newell, C. Montague Shaw, Ella Neal, Dorothy Herbert, Charles Trowbridge, Jack Mulhall, Edwin Stanley, Walter McGrail, Joe McGuinn, Bud Geary, John English, William Witney, Hiram S. Brown Jr., Franklin Adreon, Joseph F. Poland, Norman S. Hall, Ronald Davidson, Sol Shor: Movies & TV. ASIN6300208788.
^"Wilcox, Back from War, Takes Lead Role in "Soldier's Wife"; newspaper article January 1946, archived in the 1944-1946 Scrapbook of the Rochester Community Players collection, Local History Department, Rochester Public Library
^Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25047-25048). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
