Robert Ellis

Robert Ellis was an American actor of film and television who worked through the 1940s and 1950s and was the last performer to take the part of Henry Aldrich in the radio series The Aldrich Family. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and educated at schools for professional children in New York City and Hollywood before studying theater arts at Columbia University. He made his acting debut at age five and appeared in about fifty movies and television shows, sometimes credited as Bobby Ellis. In 1948 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him a special certificate for his performance and dancing as Buster Tyme in April Showers. On The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show he played Ralph Grainger, the college friend of Ronnie Burns, during its last two seasons, and he took the role of Dexter Franklin in Meet Corliss Archer. He was a producer of educational films when he died in 1973.