Robert Bailey

Robert Bailey was an American actor who worked mainly in radio and was best known for playing the insurance investigator Johnny Dollar. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he came from a stock theater family, was on stage as an infant, and performed in his parents' company until he was 15. He began in radio in Chicago, where his mother helped him find soap opera work, and in St. Louis he was put in charge of a station's stock company. His radio roles included Mortimer Gooch, Meet Corliss Archer and Kitty Keene, Inc. Signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1943, he made seven features, the first two opposite Laurel and Hardy, then returned to radio as George Valentine in Let George Do It and as Johnny Dollar, which he headlined from 1955 to 1960 and also wrote for. Late in his career he appeared in a small part in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and, uncredited, in A Tiger Walks.