Robert Broyles | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Houston Broyles January 20, 1933 Sparta, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | February 12, 2011 (aged 78) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, drama teacher, theatre director, writer |
| Years active | 1964–2000 |
Robert Houston Broyles (January 20, 1933 - February 12, 2011) was an American character actor, drama teacher, theatre director, and writer. He was sometimes billed as Bob Broyles or Bobby Broyles.
Broyles was born in Sparta, Tennessee, on January 20, 1933. He grew up in White County, Tennessee. His parents were Elise A. Bennette and Robert Lee Broyles Jr.
He served in the U. S. Navy from 1952 to 1956. He then attended Ohio State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. From 1963 to 1967, he was a drama coach in Hollywood. He made his first television appearance in 1964 on Bonanza in the episode "The Cheating Game" as Tom, one of the ranch hands.
In the late 1960s, he began to appear on many television shows, appearing three times each on My Three Sons and The Mod Squad, and twice on Family Affair. During this time, he appeared in one movie called "Fever Heat." He began to appear in more films, including Eat My Dust, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Norma Rae, and Poltergeist. Broyles continued appearing on television shows and movies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He returned to working as a drama coach in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1987. He appeared in the Andy Griffith Show reunion movie Return to Mayberry in 1986, sharing a comical boat scene with Don Knotts.
Besides working as an actor in theatre, he also worked as a writer and director. He wrote the plays "Sparta" in 1975 and "Natural Affection" in 1989 and wrote the novel "Agness" in 1977. In 1974, he was voted best actor in Los Angeles for his work in the play "Tennessee Williams" and was voted best director in Los Angeles for "Three by Tennessee Plus."[citation needed] He also directed the play "The Love Talker" in 1994. The play was written by Deborah Pryor and starred Colleen Cochran, Ebba-Marie Gendron, and Donald Wayne Jarman.[1]
Broyles made very few appearances on television and in movies in the 1990s but continued to offer acting classes called Total Acting Class.[2] His last role was in 2000 on the short-lived television show Bette starring Bette Midler. He passed away at the age of 78 in Los Angeles in 2011.