Robert Walker Jr.(1940-2019)

Born in Jamaica Hospital Medical Center (Queens, New York City) on April 15, 1940, the son of actors Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker Jr. certainly had the right pedigree to make the grade in Hollywood. His parents separated when Robert was only three. Six years later, his mother married powerful film mogul David O. Selznick who by this time had already taken firm control of Jones's career.

Walker Jr. began training at the Actors' Studio in the early 1960s. He also married wife Ellie Wood in the early 1960s and they had three children. Walker Jr. preferred to find his own place in the entertainment field and tried to avoid the obvious comparisons, but his startling resemblance to his late father made it extremely difficult for film audiences to separate the two. He started his film career in good company and with two strong roles in Un homme doit mourir (1963), a morality story set during the Korean war starring Kirk Douglas and Nick Adams, and La Cérémonie (1963) in which he received a Golden Globe Award for "promising newcomer" as Laurence Harvey's brother. Walker Jr. also worked on TV and earned a Theatre World Award for his two 1964 off-Broadway roles in "I Knock at the Door" and "Pictures in the Hallway."

Of slight build and boyishly handsome, Robert Walker Jr. seemed on his way when he was handed the biggest challenge of his film career taking over Jack Lemmon's Oscar-winning role as Les gags de la marine (1964) in the sequel to the popular service comedy Permission jusqu'à l'aube (1955). Unfortunately, his comparison to Lemmon paled significantly and the script had neither the charm nor wit of its predecessor. The film and Walker were torpedoed by the reviewers and Walker lost major ground in Hollywood. Despite his obvious talent, his subsequent films lacked the quality and promise of his first two, which included Les détraqués (1967), Les sept sauvages (1968), Trois fauves déchaînés (1968) and the title role in La vengeance du shérif (1969) starring Robert Mitchum. He and his wife Ellie appeared in roles in the hit cult film Easy Rider (1969).

Walker Jr. had guest roles in many popular television series from the 1960s through the early 1990s. In La grande vallée (1965) episode, "My Son, My Son" (aired November 3, 1965), Walker portrayed Evan Miles, an emotionally disturbed college dropout who becomes obsessed with childhood friend Audra Barkley. He played the title role and another emotionally disturbed character, a troubled actor who lived and performed on the streets and in circuses, in Naked City (1958) episode "Dust Devil on a Quiet Street" (aired November 28, 1962). He had a memorable role in Star Trek (1966) as "Charles 'Charlie' Evans" in the episode "Charlie X" (aired September 15, 1966). In addition, he played Billy the Kid in episode 22 of Au coeur du temps (1966), which originally aired on February 10, 1967. He portrayed Nick Baxter, an ill alien who caused the deaths of humans by touch, in the episode "Panic" in the television series Les envahisseurs (1967) (aired April 11, 1967). He played Mark Cole in the October 29, 1967 episode of Bonanza (1959), titled "The Gentle Ones". He appeared in a pivotal role on the Columbo (1971) episode "Mind Over Mayhem" (1974) and in the 5th season of Combat! (1962) in the episode "Ollie Joe". His final television appearances were in the 1990s, in La loi de Los Angeles (1986), FBI: The Untold Stories (1991), Santa Barbara (1984), Les nouvelles aventures de Lassie (1989), The New Adam-12 (1990), and In the Heat of the Night (1988).