Robert Preston Meservey (June , â€" March , ) was an American stage
and film actor and singer of Broadway and cinema, best known and
remembered for his collaboration with composer Meredith Willson and
originating the role of Professor Harold Hill in the musical The
Music Man and the film adaptation; the film earned him his first of
two Golden Globe Award nominations. Preston collaborated twice with
filmmaker Blake Edwards, first in S.O.B. () and again in
Victor/Victoria (). For portraying Carroll "Toddy" Todd in the latter,
he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at
the th Academy Awards.Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in
Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea; â€") and Frank
Wesley Meservey (â€"), a garment worker and a billing clerk for
American Express, respectively. After attending Abraham Lincoln High
School in Los Angeles, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community
Playhouse.Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States'
entry into World War II, he joined the United States Army Air Forces
and served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. th Air Force with
the th Bomb Group (Medium). At the end of the war in Europe, the th
and Captain Robert Meservey, an S- Officer (intelligence), were
stationed in St. Trond, Belgium. Meservey's job had been receiving
intelligence reports from th Air Force headquarters and briefing the
bomber crews on what to expect in accomplishing their missions.
and film actor and singer of Broadway and cinema, best known and
remembered for his collaboration with composer Meredith Willson and
originating the role of Professor Harold Hill in the musical The
Music Man and the film adaptation; the film earned him his first of
two Golden Globe Award nominations. Preston collaborated twice with
filmmaker Blake Edwards, first in S.O.B. () and again in
Victor/Victoria (). For portraying Carroll "Toddy" Todd in the latter,
he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at
the th Academy Awards.Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in
Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea; â€") and Frank
Wesley Meservey (â€"), a garment worker and a billing clerk for
American Express, respectively. After attending Abraham Lincoln High
School in Los Angeles, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community
Playhouse.Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States'
entry into World War II, he joined the United States Army Air Forces
and served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. th Air Force with
the th Bomb Group (Medium). At the end of the war in Europe, the th
and Captain Robert Meservey, an S- Officer (intelligence), were
stationed in St. Trond, Belgium. Meservey's job had been receiving
intelligence reports from th Air Force headquarters and briefing the
bomber crews on what to expect in accomplishing their missions.
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