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Robert Preston (June 8, 1918 – March 21, 1987) was an American stage and film actor. Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea) and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He would later serve in the United States Army Air Forces as an intelligence officer with the U.S. 9th Air Force during World War II. In 1940, he married actress Catherine Craig, to whom he remained... MORE

Robert Preston (June 8, 1918 – March 21, 1987) was an American stage and film actor. Preston was born Robert Preston Meservey in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth L. (née Rea) and Frank Wesley Meservey, a garment worker and billing clerk for American Express. After attending Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, California, he studied acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He would later serve in the United States Army Air Forces as an intelligence officer with the U.S. 9th Air Force during World War II. In 1940, he married actress Catherine Craig, to whom he remained married until his death. When he began appearing in films, the studio ordered Meservey to stop using his actual family name. As Robert Preston, by which name he would be known for his entire professional career, he appeared in many Hollywood films, predominantly Westerns, but is probably best remembered for his performance as "Professor" Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man (1962). He had already won a Tony Award for his performance in the original Broadway production, in 1957; when Willson adapted his story for the screen, he insisted on Preston's participation over the objections LESS