Reluctant Witness

Publicity men dubbed him “The Man with the Perfect Profile,” yet the soul behind that silhouette belonged to a renowned yet reluctant witness to American history and Hollywood evolution. The battle between his tinseled image and his true identity broiled into an intriguing transformation of flesh and blood into fable and ballyhoo.

 

Explore his meteoric rise from naive, small-town Nebraska boy to a celluloid heartthrob known around the world. His signature roles include Magnificent Obsession (1935) with Irene Dunn and Camille (1936) with Greta Garbo, and appearances with Vivien Leigh in A Yank at Oxford (1938) and Waterloo Bridge (1940), Bataan (1943), and Ivanhoe (1952) with Elizabeth Taylor. From 1959 to 1962, he starred in the ABC series The Detectives, and he hosted Death Valley Days (1966-1969).  

 

Discover his sheltered, almost emasculating childhood, his cursed marriage to Barbara Stanwyck, his blessed marriage to Ursula Thiess, and his discreet but intense love affairs with beauties such as Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Yvonne DeCarlo. During World War Two, he served in the United States Naval Air Corps as a flight instructor and as an actor in instructional films. Witness him hesitantly responding to a subpoena in 1947 to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Communism in American Films. Observe how he reluctantly ventured into early television yet enjoyed an unexpected, widespread success.

 

Reluctant Witness: Robert Taylor, Hollywood, & Communism draws you into the unfolding drama of a cinema icon and an unwilling yet dynamic spectator to the American dream.