Robert Stack

"Straight Shooting" -- whether skeet shooting, or portraying 'Eliot Ness' (qv) -- 'Robert Stack' (qv) always told it like it was, and shot straight. Born Charles Langford Modini Stack in Los Angeles, California, the younger son of James Langford Stack (1860-1928), the owner of an advertising agency, and Mary Elizabeth Modini Wood (1891-1975), he was named Charles Langford Modini Stack at birth by his mother but his father soon changed the name to Robert Langford Stack. (The name Robert reportedly referred to no one in particular.) His elder brother and only sibling was James Langford Stack (1916-2006).His parents had divorced when he was one-year-old, and his mother took him to Europe when he was three. He did not learn to speak English until he was six years old. His brother, James Langford Stack Jr., stayed in the United States with their father. Robert spoke fluent Italian and French, but had to learn English when they returned to Los Angeles. His mother and father remarried in 1928. Robert took drama courses at USC. He was not interested in team sports, so he took up skeet shooting. In 1935, he came in second in the National Skeet Shooting Championship (held in Cleveland) and, in 1936, his 5-man team broke the standing record at the National Skeet Championships (held in St. Louis).Robert arrived at Universal City Studios in 1939, when the movie studio (once riding high on the successes of movies like _Dracula (1931)_ (qv) and _Frankenstein (1931)_ (qv)) was in financial trouble, and looking for a superstar. That superstar was 'Deanna Durbin' (qv) (acquired from MGM), and Robert made his screen debut as her lover in _First Love (1939)_ (qv). At first, Robert did not want to listen to the makeup man who had told him, "no blond has ever made it as a leading man", and insisted on dyeing his hair black and uncurling it. That makeup man was genius and Oscar winner, 'Jack P. Pierce' (qv) (who had done all the monsters for Universal), and Robert became a matinee idol, overnight. After two more movies, Robert was teamed with Deanna again, in _Nice Girl? (1941)_ (qv). Robert was now a bona-fide star, but Universal was still only paying him $150 a week. For the next 10 years, Robert did Westerns, war movies and romantic comedies.Robert has particularly fond memories for _Bullfighter and the Lady (1951)_ (qv), a movie produced by his friend, 'John Wayne' (qv), which meant 12 weeks filming in sunny Mexico. The movie had a great script; unfortunately, two bullfighters were gored while filming. There were several weeks of delays, they could not get a crew or a sound stage, until they realized that, in Mexico, it is necessary to bribe the local union; some money was passed and filming started, immediately. There were wild times, and lots of tequila. Robert became a local legend; when some Mexicans asked him what he did in the War, Robert said: "I taught machine gun." The rumor spread: "Roberto teaches chingas!" (that's Spanish for "hookers"). In 1952, he made movie history (much like 'Al Jolson' (qv) had done in 1927, being in the first "talkie") -- he starred in _Bwana Devil (1952)_ (qv), the first 3-D movie. This gave startling effects to the story, which was based on real-life lion attacks in Africa.Robert attended the premiere, and recalled people's reactions to the 3-D lion scenes: "People in the audience jumped out of their seats, some even fainted." The movie broke box office records, and immediately started the demand to film more movies in 3-D (such as _House of Wax (1953)_ (qv)). Around 1955, Robert (Hollywood's most eligible bachelor) was introduced to Rosemarie Bowe, by mutual agent 'Bill Shiffrin' (qv). Rosemarie had been under contract to MGM and Columbia, making such movies as _Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)_ (qv) and _The Golden Mistress (1954)_ (qv). Robert and Rosemarie wed two years later and had two children: 'Elizabeth Stack' (qv) and 'Charles Stack' (qv). The former perennial bachelor found out he liked being married and being a father. His onscreen fame had grown and, for _Written on the Wind (1956)_ (qv), he received an Academy Award nomination. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with 20th-Century Fox, which had Robert under contract, and had lent him to Universal for this picture.Robert talks of a few run-ins with a mystery woman he calls "Deirdre", which cost him his next plum movie role. Although he gives her this pseudonym, he drops over a half dozen bits of information about her... she was from the South, under contract to MGM, married a young actor, had an interest in bullfighters, and (refusing to work with 'Robert Stack' (qv)) starred with 'Tyrone Power' (qv) and 'Errol Flynn' (qv) in a movie about a post-World War I "lost generation"; (which could be _The Sun Also Rises (1957)_ (qv), and the mystery woman could be 'Ava Gardner' (qv)). His contract with Fox came to an end. And so, Robert made the transition to the new medium that was sweeping the country: television. He delivered breakout performances in his signature role as T-man (Treasury agent) 'Eliot Ness' (qv) on the wildly popular television series, _The Untouchables (1959)_ (qv) which, after the pilot, ran for four seasons (118 episodes). And there was also the television movie, _The Scarface Mob (1959)_ (qv).There were some funny behind-the-scenes anecdotes, such as this one: there is no scene which stood out more as the most potentially evil, and risky in terms of audience acceptance, as the "bacio di morte" ("kiss of death"), the Sicilian gesture whenever a Capo ('Neville Brand' (qv)) kissed a Mafia soldier ('Frank DeKova' (qv)) to send him out as an executioner. These two macho actors were nervous enough about this scene (two guys had never kissed on television before), but then some crewman decided to be a prankster and told each star, in private, just before filming, "look out -- your co-star likes kissing guys" (a complete deception, of course). There were some unfortunate anecdotes: 'Joseph Wiseman' (qv) was a fine actor, but trained to work on the New York stage with props; he was not accustomed to real Hollywood sets. In a 1960 episode of "The Untouchables", Stack was supposed to take an axe and smash up a brewery. He hit a real pipe, the axe ricocheted off the metal, and cut through his Achilles tendon."I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life", Stack commented. They wrote a role for Joseph as a crippled, renegade chemist a few weeks later in "The Antidote" which Robert noted "was one of our half-dozen top shows". Robert went on to do television series, such as _The Name of the Game (1968)_ (qv) alternating lead with 'Gene Barry' (qv) and 'Anthony Franciosa' (qv), then later _Most Wanted (1976)_ (qv), and he pleasantly surprised everyone with his flair for comedies in movies like _1941 (1979)_ (qv) and _Airplane! (1980)_ (qv). Robert was the host of _Unsolved Mysteries (1987)_ (qv) and did more zany humor in _Caddyshack II (1988)_ (qv), _Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)_ (qv) and _BASEketball (1998)_ (qv). He also provided the voice of the character Ultra Magnus in _The Transformers: The Movie (1986)_ (qv). He portrayed the no-nonsense G-man Ness again in The Return of 'Eliot Ness' (qv) (1991). Stack was being treated for prostate cancer when he died at age 84 on May 14, 2003 at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, after suffering a heart attack.::[email protected] (updated by [email protected])