Biography

Robert Beatty graduated with a B.A. from the University of Toronto and started in amateur dramatics with the Hamilton Player's Guild. For a while, he made a living as a cashier for a gas and fuel company. In order to further hone his acting skills, he made his way to London in 1936 (on the advice of Leslie Howard) to train for acting at RADA. He made his theatrical debut in "Idiot's Delight" at the Apollo, and from there obtained regular work on both stage and screen in bit parts and walk-ons, eventually making his breakthrough on radio as a broadcaster for the BBC. He was famously on hand, reporting eyewitness accounts of the London Blitz for the Overseas News Service during the war years. On the strength of this, Beatty was promoted to more substantial film roles, beginning with San Demetrio London (1943), in which he played a brash, alcoholic American sailor mellowed by his good-natured British crewmates in the best 'stiff-upper-lip' tradition. This seemed to set the tone for his f

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Filmography