Robert Webber(1924-1989)

Over his 40-year career as one of Hollywood's veteran character actors, Robert Webber always marked his spot by playing all types of roles and was not stereotyped into playing just one kind of character. Sometimes he even got to play a leading role (see Hysteria (1965)). Webber first started out in small stage shows and a few Broadway plays before he landed the role of Juror 12 in 12 Hommes en colère (1957). He was also known for numerous war films, playing Lee Marvin's general in Les douze salopards (1967) or as real-life Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in La bataille de Midway (1976). Webber's other best known movies include L'Insurgé (1970), La malédiction de la panthère rose (1978), Elle (1979) (as composer Dudley Moore's lyricist partner), La bidasse (1980), Les oies sauvages II (1985) and co-starring with Richard Dreyfuss and Barbra Streisand as prosecutor Francis McMillian in Cinglée (1987). In 1989 he died of Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in Malibu, California, shortly after completing the 1988 TV production La chose venue d'ailleurs (1988). He bore a resemblance to character actor Kevin McCarthy.