Robert Lowery

Robert Lowery was born Robert Larkin Hanks in Kansas City, Missouri, the only living child of Roscoe Hanks, noted Kansas City attorney and oil investor; and Leah Thompson, concert pianist and organist. He attended local Kansas City schools and graduated from Paseo High School in 1931 with a record as an accomplished athlete. He played with the old Kansas City Blues baseball team and was a boxer and football player. After a field injury in which he broke his pelvis, he built himself back to strength working at a paper factory in Kansas City. With the premature death of his father at 43, he and his mother moved to Los Angeles in hopes of his landing film and theater roles, given his good looks, athletic ability and outstanding physique. He enrolled in Lila Bliss' acting school and soon came to the attention of Twentieth Century-Fox after successfully appearing in a number of stage roles in the Los Angeles area. He was signed to Fox in 1938, and was soon appearing in such first-class film