River Phoenix (1970 - 1993)

Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom on August 23, 1970, in Madras, Oregon, the first child of Arlyn Sharon Dunetz (born 1944) and John Lee Bottom (born 1947). Phoenix’s parents named him after the river of life from the Hermann Hesse novel Siddhartha, and he received his middle name from the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude”. […]

Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990)

Author. Born in Llandaff, Wales, of Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl, the joint owner of a successful shipping business and his second wife Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg. Within just a few weeks in 1920, Dahl’s seven year old half-sister, Astrid died of appendicitis and his father died of pneumonia. The family remained in Britain, however, and Dahl […]

Rob Knox (1989 - 2008)

Knox was born to Colin and Sally Knox in 1989. He was a pupil at Beths Grammar School, Bexley. He had been acting since the age of 11, and his first credited role was a small part in an episode of the ITV police drama The Bill and he also appeared in the Channel 4 […]

Robb Hansell Sagendorph (1900 - 1970)

Publisher. In 1935 he founded and became publisher, president and director of the magazine “Yankee” until the magazine folded in 1970. In 1939 he bought the rights to the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” from Little Brown and Company and returned it to its original look from 1792.  Family links:  Spouse:  Beatrix Thorn Sagendorph (1900 – 1985)* […]

Robert Armstrong (1890 - 1973)

Born Robert William Armstrong in Saginaw, Michigan, lived in Bay City, Michigan until about 1902 and moved to Seattle, Washington. Armstrong studied to be a lawyer but gave it up to manage his uncle’s touring companies. He attended the University of Washington where he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. In his […]

Robert “Bob” Farrell (1927 - 2015)

American Author, Motivational Speaker and Founder of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlors. After serving in the Air Force during World War II, Farrell worked as a salesman for Libby Foods, where he began breaking sales records with his creative marketing and received a series of job promotions to become regional sales manager. He left the company […]

Robert “Bobby” Harron (1893 - 1920)

Silent movie actor of the early 1900s. He is featured in “Judith of Bethulia,” and played four different roles in D.W. Griffith’s classic “Birth of a Nation.” His career faltered after numerous tragedies in his family and he was found dead at the Hotel Seymour in New York City in September of 1920. Some sources […]

Robert “Democritus Junior” Burton (1577 - 1640)

Author of the wonderfully learned, humorous and eccentric masterpiece ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy’, written under the pseudonym of Democritus Junior, which is repeated on the memorial above his tomb. According to his contemporary, the gossip Anthony a Wood, he had predicted the time of his death with the aid of astrology, and hanged himself so […]

Robert A. Stranahan (1886 - 1962)

Founder of Champion Spark Plug. In 1910, Mr. Stranahan moved his struggling spark plug business from Boston, Massachusetts to Toledo, Ohio. Champion Spark Plug later went onto become a multi-million dollar company. Mr. Stranahan is also credited with adopting the “red bow tie” symbol of Champion Spark Plug that is still recognized today. (bio by: […]

Robert Abplanalp (1922 - 2003)

Robert Henry “Bob” Abplanalp, KHS (April 4, 1922 – August 30, 2003) was an American inventor and engineer who invented the modern form of the aerosol valve, the founder of Precision Valve Corporation and a political activist.  Born to Swiss immigrant parents in the Bronx, New York, Abplanalp graduated from Fordham Preparatory School in 1939 […]

Robert Adam (1728 - 1792)

Architect. One of the most prominent architects of 18th century Great Britain, he was appointed as the Royal Architect of the King’s Works, serving from 1761 to 1769. Robert was born on July 3, 1728 at Gladney House in Kirkcaldy, Fife .He was the son of William Adam, the country’s foremost architect of the time, […]

Robert Alan Aurthur (1922 - 1978)

Robert Alan Aurthur (June 10, 1922 – November 20, 1978) was an American screenwriter, director and producer. In the early years of television, he wrote for Studio One and then moved on to write episodes of Mister Peepers (1952–53). He followed with teleplays for Campbell Playhouse (1954), Justice (1954), Goodyear Television Playhouse (1953–54) and Producers’ Showcase(1955). […]

Robert Alda (1914 - 1986)

Alda, an American of Italian descent, was born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo in New York, New York, the son of Frances (née Tumillo) and Antonio D’Abruzzo, a barber born in Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Benevento, Campania, Italy. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York in 1930. He began as a singer and dancer […]

Robert Aldrich (1918 - 1983)

Aldrich was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich. He was a grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and a cousin to Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. He was educated at the Moses Brown School in Providence, and studied economics at the University of Virginia where he […]

Robert Allison (1934 - 1995)

Major League Baseball Player. Born in Raytown, Missouri, he was an outfielder and first baseman, making his debut for the Washington Senators on September 16, 1958 and received the Rookie of the Year Award in 1959. For thirteen  seasons, he played with the Washington Senators (1958-1960), Minnesota Twins (1962-70) and was a three time All-star […]

Robert Allman (1927 - 2013)

Robert Allman was born in Melbourne in 1927. He studied in Paris and sang at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden for three seasons from 1955. He then moved to Germany, where he sang in over a dozen opera houses. He also sang in opera houses including Zurich, New Orleans, Singapore and Vienna.  In 1965, he […]

Robert Altman (1925 - 2006)

Altman was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Helen (née Matthews), a Mayflower descendant from Nebraska, and Bernard Clement Altman, a wealthy insurance salesman and amateur gambler, who came from an upper-class family. Altman’s ancestry was German, English and Irish; his paternal grandfather, Frank Altman, Sr., anglicized the spelling of the family name […]

Robert Alton Harris (1953 - 1992)

Robert Alton Harris was born at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the fifth of nine children of Kenneth and Evelyn Harris. Kenneth was a sergeant in the United States Army who was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for his service in World War II. Both parents were alcoholics, and Robert reportedly was born […]

Robert Ames (1889 - 1931)

Actor. Acclaimed for his roles on both the theater and motion pictures, he is best remembered for his role as ‘Jack Merrick’ in the 1929 file “The Trespasser,” with Gloria Swanson and Wally Albright. He also was acclaimed for his roles in the films “Double Cross Roads,” “Voice of the City” (1929) and “Behind Office […]

Robert Andrews Millikan (1868 - 1953)

Physicist. Born in Morrison, Illinois, he was a doctor of physics and electronics scientist. As a scientist, he made numerous momentous discoveries in the fields of electricity, optics and molecular physics. In 1923, he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics for his study of the elementary electronic charge and the photoelectric effect. He […]

Robert Anning Bell (1863 - 1933)

Artist and Member of Royal Academy. (bio by: David Conway)

Robert Anthony Buell (1940 - 2002)

Robert Anthony Buell Executed this morning by lethal injection for the July 1982 abduction and slaying of 11-year-old Krista Lea Harrison of Marshallville. Buell, a former loan specialist with the city of Akron’s Planning Department, was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. inside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. Buell, 62, gave a one-minute statement […]

Robert Archer (1794 - 1877)

Businessman. An Iron manufacturer, he served as an United States Army physician stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Fort King, Florida, from 1813 to 1839. He became superintendent of the Armory Iron Company in Richmond in 1848, and in 1859, with his son-in-law, Joseph Reid Anderson, merged that company with the Tredegar Iron Company to […]

Robert Armin (1970 - 1970)

Entertainer. A stage comedian, he was the successor of Will Kemp. Where Kemp was a ‘clown’, Armin’s style of comedy was different, as can be seen in later Shakespeare plays where the part of the ‘fool’ becomes less physical and more prone to song and amusing philosophy. He was probably the first to play ‘Touchstone’ […]

Robert Armstrong (1890 - 1973)

Actor. Born Robert William Armstrong, he was a popular character performer best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in “King Kong” (1933). With the success of “King Kong”, he reprised his role in “The Son of Kong” (1933) and “Mighty Joe Young” (1949). He appeared in 127 films between 1927 and 1964, to include […]

Robert Arthur (1909 - 1986)

Motion Picture Producer, Writer. Produced motion pictures from the 1940s to the 1970s. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Robert B. Parker (1932 - 2010)

Parker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1956 Parker married Joan H. Parker, whom he claimed to have met as a toddler at a birthday party. They spent their childhoods in the same neighborhood.  After earning a BA degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, Parker served as a soldier in the US Army Infantry […]

Robert B. Sherman (1925 - 2012)

Robert Bernard Sherman was born on December 19, 1925, in New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Rosa and Al Sherman. Al Sherman, a songwriter, paid for Robert’s hospital delivery costs with a royalty check that had arrived that day for the song “Save Your Sorrow”. Al Sherman was to become a well known Tin […]

Robert Barrat (1889 - 1970)

Robert Harriot Barrat (July 10, 1889 – January 7, 1970) was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor. Born in New York City, Robert Barrat made his theatrical debut in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts. He later acted on Broadway and went into films, acting in some one-hundred and fifty films in a […]

Robert Beatty (1909 - 1992)

Robert Beatty Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Beatty began his acting career in Britain in 1939.  Beatty’s film credits include: San Demetrio London (1943), Another Shore (1948), Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), The Square Ring (1953), The Amorous Prawn (1962), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Superman […]