Robert Fuller (actor)

Robert Fuller (born Leonard Leroy Lee; July 29, 1933) is an American horse rancher and retired actor.

Robert Fuller was born Leonard Leroy Lee on July 29, 1933, in Troy, New York, the only child of Elizabeth Lee, a dance instructor.

later in his childhood, Betty married Robert Simpson Sr., a Naval Academy officer.

In 1939, at the age of 6, his family and he moved to Key West, Florida, where, already known by the nickname of "Buddy", he took the name Robert Simpson Jr. The early highlights of his life were acting and dancing.

His parents owned a dancing school in Florida.

His family also moved to Chicago, where they lived for a year, before moving back to Florida.

Simpson, Jr., as he was then still formally known, attended the Miami Military School for fifth and sixth grades, and Key West High School for ninth grade.

He dropped out in 1948, at the age of 14, because he disliked school and was doing poorly there.

In 1950, at the age of 16, he traveled with his family to Hollywood, California, where his first job was as a stunt man.

He also worked at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, beginning as a doorman and working his way up to assistant manager by age 18.

At the urging of friends, Simpson, Jr., joined the Screen Actors Guild, embarked on a career in acting, and changed his name to Robert Fuller, the name by which he was known at his most prominent.

Fuller's first small role was as an extra in the 1952 film Above and Beyond.

This part led to much extra work on many projects, one of which was in I Love Melvin. In 1953, he again had uncredited bit parts in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (which starred Marilyn Monroe) and the Doris Day classic, Calamity Jane.

His career went on hold for service in the United States Army.

He served a tour of duty in Korea and returned to the United States in 1955.

Although he had been considering giving up acting, Fuller, at the suggestion of his best friend, Chuck Courtney, attended Richard Boone's acting classes.

Boone suggested that Fuller study under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse.

Fuller's first speaking role was in Friendly Persuasion in 1956, where he worked with his future Laramie co-star John Smith and another close friend, Doug McClure.

In the 1956 episode "The Comeback" in the religion anthology series, Crossroads, Fuller played the part of a former soldier.

He began his career on television, guest-starring primarily on Western programs, while appearing in several movies, including: The Brain from Planet Arous, Teenage Thunder (both in 1957), Return of the Seven (1966), Incident at Phantom Hill (1966), and The Hard Ride (1971).

In 1957, Fuller was cast in his first major film role in Teenage Thunder. He said of it:

"I always wanted to be in show business and with the help of my best buddy, Chuck Courtney, who was an actor then, he helped get me my first starring role in a movie called Teenage Thunder. It was a break for me, and since Chuck had the pull at the time to get the director, Paul Helmick, use me for the bad guy and not another actor that he really wanted. It was the gateway to many other roles, which led to the Laramie series and so on and so forth."

Fuller became an immensely popular character actor, guest-starring in dozens of television programs including Buckskin, The Big Valley, The Californians, The Restless Gun, The Lawless Years, U.S. Marshal, Panic!, M Squad, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Monroes, and Lux Playhouse.

He appeared in the series Strange Intruder as a villain who dies in the third episode.

He played Alex in a 1958 episode of Death Valley Days, the Gunsmith in support of guest star Anthony Caruso, and returned to the show in 1959 to play clever Mexican-American cattle rustler Johnny Santos in the episode, "Ten in Texas".

In 1959, he played a character accused of arson in Broderick Crawford's syndicated series, Highway Patrol.

He also made appearances in ABC's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Mickey Spillane's syndicated Mike Hammer.

On February 24, 1959, Fuller guest-starred in the episode "Blind is the Killer," in NBC's Cimarron City television series.

This appearance propelled him into a lead role seven months later in Laramie, one of the comparatively few network programs set in Wyoming.

Fuller appeared as Joe Cole, a young gunfighter seeking a reputation, who found his target in Cimarron City Mayor Matt Rockford, played by George Montgomery.

In the summer of 1959, Fuller guest-starred as young outlaw, Buck Harmon, in the episode "The Friend" on the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series, Lawman. In the story line, Harmon is estranged from his minister father, played by Robert F. Simon.

When the outlaw gang comes into Laramie, Buck switches sides to help his old friend, Deputy Johnny McKay (Peter Brown).

In the shootout, Harmon is gunned down, but his father is spared.

That same year, Fuller also appeared as Davey Carey in another Lawman episode, "The Souvenir".

Fuller was David Dortort's second choice for the role of Lorne Greene's youngest cocky, impish son, Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright, on NBC's Bonanza, but he lost the role to another young and then-unknown actor, Michael Landon, whose career was made by that role.

About the same time, Fuller landed the co-starring role of Jess Harper on Laramie, which ran from 1959 to 1963, and Fuller was cast opposite another of his best friends, John Smith.

Still unknown, Fuller was asked to do a screen test for the character of Slim Sherman, and Smith had originally been cast as Jess Harper.

Fuller insisted he would be better cast as Harper, and after the screen test, he won the role of Jess, while Smith got the part of Slim.

In his five decades of television, Fuller was known for his deep, raspy voice and was familiar to television viewers throughout the 1960s from his co-star roles on the popular 1960s Western series Laramie as Jess Harper and Wagon Train as Cooper Smith.

He was also well known for his starring role as Dr. Kelly Brackett in the 1970s medical/action drama Emergency!