Robert Easton (born Robert Easton Burke, November 23, 1930 â€"
December 16, 2011) was an American radio, film, and television actor
whose career spanned more than 60 years. His mastery of English
dialect earned him the epithet "The Man of a Thousand Voices". For
decades, he was a leading Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.Born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1930, Robert was the only child of Mary
Easton (née Kloes) and John Edward Burke. He moved to Texas at the
age of seven with his mother, a former actress, following his parents'
divorce. Resettling in the new cultural environment of San Antonio,
young Robert took immediate notice of the style of speaking in the
city, and he soon became interested in the variety of dialects spoken
elsewhere in Texas and in the surrounding region. Struggling with a
severe stuttering problem throughout his childhood also made Robert
keenly aware of the "minutiae of speech" and the mechanics of
pronunciation. Much later, in a 1998 interview with The New York
Times, he explained, "When you have a big [stuttering] problem like
that you compensate", adding "I found it easier to do voices other
than my own." All of those early experiences of coping with his speech
disorder and fine-tuning his ear to the peculiarities of regional
accents and the subtleties of voice patterns proved to be,
career-wise, great advantages for Robert. He not only became a
successful character actor, he later gained a reputation in Hollywood
as one of the more effective and highly respected dialect coaches in
the entertainment industry.Robert began performing on radio as a
teenager. At the age of 14, he auditioned and was chosen to join the
cast of the popular Chicago-based radio program "Quiz Kids". He toured
the country in 1945 with the cast of other Quiz Kids "child
prodigies", and those performances led to other opportunities on
radio, such as his role as Magnus Proudfoot on the early radio version
of Gunsmoke. He also performed on Fibber McGee and Molly, The Fred
Allen Show, The Halls of Ivy, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, William
Shakespeareâ€"A Portrait in Sound, The Zero Hour, and on an array of
other radio programs. Easton's voice acting on radio continued for
decades to come. As late as 2008, at the age of 78, he performed as
the scheming character Bart Rathbone on numerous episodes of
Adventures in Odyssey, a radio drama series for children.By 1949,
Easton began working in Hollywood films. That year, after briefly
attending the University of Texas, the gangly, 6-foot-4-inch
19-year-old landed his first uncredited bit part as a parking
attendant in the film Undertow, a crime thriller by Universal Pictures
with Rock Hudson as a supporting player. Easton continued to use his
birth surname during the early years of his film career even though
the majority of his roles between 1949 and 1951 remained uncredited on
screen. His first onscreen creditâ€"still presented as Robert Easton
Burkeâ€"was for his role as a soldier in the 1951 MGM production of
the Civil War classic The Red Badge of Courage, directed by John
Huston and starring Audie Murphy. After that film, however, he legally
changed his surname from Burke to Easton for professional reasons but
principally "to distinguish himself from his father." Easton appeared
in a series of other films during the 1950s before he was cast in 1958
as Sergeant Jonesie in When Hell Broke Loose, then as "Sparks" in the
1961 feature film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Peter Lorre,
and in 1962 as "Handown", a gunner on a B-17 in the World War II film
The War Lover, which starred Steve McQueen and a very young Michael
Crawford. Much later, in 1987, Easton was in the baseball film Long
Gone in the role of Cletis Ramey. One of his more unusual voices and
film roles was in 1991, when he portrayed a Klingon judge in Star Trek
VI: The Undiscovered Country. He also appeared in Gods and Generals
(2003) as John Janney and in Spiritual Warriors as Roger (2007). By
the end of his career, Easton performed in over 75 films.
December 16, 2011) was an American radio, film, and television actor
whose career spanned more than 60 years. His mastery of English
dialect earned him the epithet "The Man of a Thousand Voices". For
decades, he was a leading Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.Born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1930, Robert was the only child of Mary
Easton (née Kloes) and John Edward Burke. He moved to Texas at the
age of seven with his mother, a former actress, following his parents'
divorce. Resettling in the new cultural environment of San Antonio,
young Robert took immediate notice of the style of speaking in the
city, and he soon became interested in the variety of dialects spoken
elsewhere in Texas and in the surrounding region. Struggling with a
severe stuttering problem throughout his childhood also made Robert
keenly aware of the "minutiae of speech" and the mechanics of
pronunciation. Much later, in a 1998 interview with The New York
Times, he explained, "When you have a big [stuttering] problem like
that you compensate", adding "I found it easier to do voices other
than my own." All of those early experiences of coping with his speech
disorder and fine-tuning his ear to the peculiarities of regional
accents and the subtleties of voice patterns proved to be,
career-wise, great advantages for Robert. He not only became a
successful character actor, he later gained a reputation in Hollywood
as one of the more effective and highly respected dialect coaches in
the entertainment industry.Robert began performing on radio as a
teenager. At the age of 14, he auditioned and was chosen to join the
cast of the popular Chicago-based radio program "Quiz Kids". He toured
the country in 1945 with the cast of other Quiz Kids "child
prodigies", and those performances led to other opportunities on
radio, such as his role as Magnus Proudfoot on the early radio version
of Gunsmoke. He also performed on Fibber McGee and Molly, The Fred
Allen Show, The Halls of Ivy, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, William
Shakespeareâ€"A Portrait in Sound, The Zero Hour, and on an array of
other radio programs. Easton's voice acting on radio continued for
decades to come. As late as 2008, at the age of 78, he performed as
the scheming character Bart Rathbone on numerous episodes of
Adventures in Odyssey, a radio drama series for children.By 1949,
Easton began working in Hollywood films. That year, after briefly
attending the University of Texas, the gangly, 6-foot-4-inch
19-year-old landed his first uncredited bit part as a parking
attendant in the film Undertow, a crime thriller by Universal Pictures
with Rock Hudson as a supporting player. Easton continued to use his
birth surname during the early years of his film career even though
the majority of his roles between 1949 and 1951 remained uncredited on
screen. His first onscreen creditâ€"still presented as Robert Easton
Burkeâ€"was for his role as a soldier in the 1951 MGM production of
the Civil War classic The Red Badge of Courage, directed by John
Huston and starring Audie Murphy. After that film, however, he legally
changed his surname from Burke to Easton for professional reasons but
principally "to distinguish himself from his father." Easton appeared
in a series of other films during the 1950s before he was cast in 1958
as Sergeant Jonesie in When Hell Broke Loose, then as "Sparks" in the
1961 feature film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with Peter Lorre,
and in 1962 as "Handown", a gunner on a B-17 in the World War II film
The War Lover, which starred Steve McQueen and a very young Michael
Crawford. Much later, in 1987, Easton was in the baseball film Long
Gone in the role of Cletis Ramey. One of his more unusual voices and
film roles was in 1991, when he portrayed a Klingon judge in Star Trek
VI: The Undiscovered Country. He also appeared in Gods and Generals
(2003) as John Janney and in Spiritual Warriors as Roger (2007). By
the end of his career, Easton performed in over 75 films.
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.