Robert Bray


Robert E. Bray was an American film and television actor probably best remembered for his role as the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the CBS series Lassie. He also starred in Stagecoach West.

Life and career

Bray was born to homesteading parents in Kalispell, Montana. The family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Bray attended Lincoln High School. After graduation, he was for a time a lumberjack, a cowboy, and a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1942, Bray joined the United States Marine Corps and saw action in the South Pacific during World War II. He finished the war at the rank of master sergeant and then aspired to become a taxidermist or the owner of a hunting/fishing lodge.
Instead, Bray entered films in 1946 under contract to RKO. He was marketed as the "next Gary Cooper" but appeared in B Westerns like 1949's Rustlers. In the 1950s, the then freelancing actor appeared in a varied number of roles including the 1952 episode "Thunder Over Inyo" of the syndicated western television series The Adventures of Kit Carson.
In 1954, he portrayed bandit Emmett Dalton in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated western Stories of the Century. That same year, he guest-starred in Reed Hadley's CBS crime drama, The Public Defender. On December 4, 1955, he was cast as petroleum pioneer Pattillo Higgins in "Spindletop – The First Great Texas Oil Strike " on the CBS history series, You Are There, the story of the origin of the Texas oil industry.
In 1958, he starred in Never Love a Stranger, a film adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel.
Bray guest-starred in the episode "Obituary" of NBC's western series, Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards, and in the 1959 episode "The Trouble with Tolliver" of the ABC western drama, The Man from Blackhawk.
He appeared twice on ABC's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
Bray was cast as Carl the Bus Driver in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and as detective Mike Hammer in My Gun Is Quick. Other roles were on NBC's western anthology series, Frontier and on the syndicated series City Detective and State Trooper.
Early in 1960, Bray was cast as Tom Byson in the episode "Three Graves" of the NBC western series, Riverboat.
In the 1960–1961 television season, Bray played Simon Kane in the ABC series Stagecoach West.
He starred in three episodes of NBC's western Laramie between 1960 and 1963. He appeared in three episodes of CBS's Perry Mason. In 1959 he played pivate detective and murder victim Carl Davis in "The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll." In the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Angry Astronaut," he had the role of title character and defendant Mitch Heller; and in 1963 he portrayed wealthy murder victim Martin Walden. He also guest-starred in NBC's Temple Houston , Overland Trail, and The Loretta Young Show. He appeared in four episodes of CBS's anthology suspense series Alfred Hitchcock Presents between 1958 and 1961. In 1958, Bray was offered a supporting role in director Joshua Logan's film adaptation of South Pacific, but he decided instead to star in low-budget films for Allied Artists. It was a strategic error in his career, for South Pacific became a smash success.
In 1964, Bray won the role of USFS Ranger Corey Stuart in Season 11 of Lassie because of his affinity for animals and their reciprocity toward him. The relationship continued for two more seasons. He was written out of the series as a victim of a forest fire, and his character was sent away to a hospital never to return.
Bray and his wife, Joan, retired to Bishop, California, in the Sierra Nevada. He was often seen in his Winnebago in Bishop with his dog "Lady". Bray was a fly fisherman, hunter, model duck carver, and all-around sportsman.

Death

He spent his last years in the High Sierras where he had made many of his early western films. Bray died of a heart attack. His ashes were scattered over Zuma Beach in Malibu, California.

Selected filmography