Born in Montana to homesteading parents, Robert Bray eventually moved
to Seattle with his family and attended Lincoln High School. After
graduation, he knocked around for a while as a lumberjack, cowboy and a
member of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).
As a young man, Bray worked for a while in Hollywood as a studio
carpenter in the early 1940s, before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in
1942 during World War II. He saw heavy action in the South Pacific
during his tour of duty, before finally mustering out as a Master
Sergeant at war's end.
With aspirations of being a taxidermist or owner of a hunting/fishing
lodge, Bray finally decided to pursue acting as a career, and was
eventually signed in 1946 to a contract at RKO Pictures where he was
looked upon as the new Gary Cooper.
He spent three years of a seven-year deal playing supporting roles in a
variety of RKO police dramas and
Tim Holt westerns before his contract
was dropped. From then until the early 1960s when he landed the plum TV
role of Ranger Corey Stuart in the
Lassie (1954) TV series, he was a
freelance actor, who found work mainly portraying he-men such as a
tough cavalry officers, hard-bitten cops, a stagecoach driver, etc., in
a wide range of action-oriented movies and television episodes. He won
the part in "Lassie" over several other candidates because of his
affinity for animals, and theirs for him.
Earlier in his career Bray played in some well-received if minor roles
such as "Carl" the bus driver in
Bus Stop (1956), the film that finally
got Marilyn Monroe taken seriously as a
dramatic actress. That picture's director,
Joshua Logan, offered Bray a part
in his next film,
Süd Pazifik (1958) but, to his
never-ending regret, Bray instead opted to star in several forgettable
low-budget pictures for Allied Artists. "Had I appeared in the smash
hit South Pacific," he said, "who knows where I might have ended up."
After being replaced on "Lassie" in 1968, Bray's motivation for
continued acting work waned and he eventually retired with his wife
Joan to Bishop, California, where he could often be found cruising
around town in his Winnebago motor home with his dog Lady. An ardent
fly fisherman, hunter, model duck carver and all-around sportsman, Bob
lived out his final years in the shadow of the eastern High Sierras,
where he made so many of his early western movies. After his passing in
1983, his ashes were scattered over Zuma Beach, California, where he
spent many pleasant days as a young man.
