Robert Coote


Robert Coote was an English screen and stage actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many Hollywood films, and originated the role of Colonel Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

Early life

Coote was born in London, the son of vaudevillian and playwright Bert Coote. He was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex, but left at age 16 to join a touring repertory company, performing performing in Britain, South Africa, and Australia. He made his West End debut in 1931.

Career

Coote worked on the London stage and appeared in minor roles in British films, appearing in the 1936 Australian film Rangle River. He arrived in Hollywood in the late 1930s, beginning with 1937's The Thirteenth Chair. He played a succession of pompous British types in supporting roles, including a brief but memorable turn as Sgt. Bertie Higginbotham in Gunga Din.
His acting career was interrupted by his service as a squadron leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. During his service, he organized entertainment shows at CFB Rockcliffe. He played Bob Trubshawe in Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death, chosen for the first-ever Royal Film Performance on 1 November 1946, before he returned to Hollywood, where his films included The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Forever Amber, The Three Musketeers, and Orson Welles' Othello.
File:The Rogues cast 1964.JPG|right|thumb|The cast of The Rogues television series with Charles Boyer, Gig Young, David Niven, Robert Coote and Gladys Cooper
In 1956, Coote created the role of Colonel Pickering in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady, which he reprised in the musical's 1976–77 Broadway revival. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1957 for his performance. He also originated the role of King Pellinore in the Broadway production of Camelot.
He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as Timmy St. Clair in the NBC TV series The Rogues. In 1966, Coote appeared with Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in an episode of The Honeymooners entitled "The Honeymooners in England", broadcast on CBS-TV from Miami.
In 1973, in his last feature film performance, Coote portrayed one of the critics dispatched by Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood.
Coote guest-starred in an episode of the 1979 NBC television anthology series $weepstake$. His final role was on television, playing orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann in the 1981 NBC-TV series Nero Wolfe, starring William Conrad in the title role. In most film and TV adaptations of Nero Wolfe mysteries, before and since, Horstmann has been a very minor character, but Coote's Horstmann got considerable screen time in the series.

Personal life

Coote was a close friend of fellow actor David Niven, sharing a house with Niven for a time in the late 1930s and living in a flat over Niven's garage for several years after the Second World War.

Death

Coote died in his sleep at the New York Athletic Club in November 1982, at the age of 73.

Partial filmography

  • Sally in Our Alley as Waiter At Party
  • Loyalties as Robert
  • Radio Parade of 1935 as Executive
  • Rangle River as Reggie Mannister, Flight-Lieutenant
  • The Thirteenth Chair as Stanby
  • The Sheik Steps Out as Lord Eustace Byington
  • A Yank at Oxford as Wavertree
  • Blond Cheat as Gilbert Potts
  • The Girl Downstairs as Karl, Paul's Butler
  • Mr. Moto's Last Warning as Rollo Venables
  • Gunga Din as Sgt. Bertie Higginbotham
  • The House of Fear as Robert Morton
  • Bad Lands as Eaton
  • Nurse Edith Cavell as Bungey
  • Vigil in the Night as Dr. Caley
  • You Can't Fool Your Wife as 'Batty' Battincourt
  • Commandos Strike at Dawn as Robert Bowen
  • Forever and a Day as Blind Officer
  • A Matter of Life and Death as Bob Trubshawe
  • Cloak and Dagger as Cronin
  • The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as Mr. Coombe
  • Lured as Detective
  • The Exile as Dick Pinner
  • Forever Amber as Sir Thomas Dudley
  • Berlin Express as Sterling
  • The Three Musketeers as Aramis
  • The Red Danube as Brigadier C.M.V. Catlock
  • The Elusive Pimpernel as Sir Andrew ffloulkes
  • Soldiers Three as Maj. Mercer
  • The Lavender Hill Mob as Waiter in Restaurant
  • The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel as British Medical Officer
  • Othello as Roderigo
  • Scaramouche as Gaston Binet
  • The Merry Widow as Marquis De Crillon
  • The Prisoner of Zenda as Fritz von Tarlenheim
  • The Constant Husband as Friends and Relations: The Best Man
  • The Swan as Capt. Wunderlich
  • Merry Andrew as Dudley Larabee
  • The Horse's Mouth as Sir William Beeder
  • The League of Gentlemen as Bunny Warren
  • The V.I.P.s as John Coburn
  • The Rogues as Timmy St. Clair
  • The Golden Head as Braithwaite
  • A Man Could Get Killed as Hatton / Jones
  • The Swinger as Sir Hubert Charles
  • The Cool Ones as Stanley Krumley
  • The Whitehall Worrier as Rt. Hon. Mervyn Pugh
  • Prudence and the Pill as Henry Hardcastle
  • Kenner as Henderson
  • Up the Front as General Burke
  • Theatre of Blood as Oliver Larding
  • Institute for Revenge as Wellington
  • Nero Wolfe as Theodore Horstmann

    Partial stage credits

  • Our Peg
  • Frederica
  • Wild Violets - Algernon Rutherford
  • Mother of Pearl
  • The Love of Four Colonels - Colonel Desmond De S. Rinder-Sparrow
  • Someone Waiting - John Nedlow
  • Dear Charles - Sir Michael Anstruther
  • My Fair Lady - Colonel Pickering
  • My Fair Lady - Colonel Pickering
  • Camelot - Pellinore
  • A Talent to Amuse
  • The Magistrate - Colonel Luckyn
  • The Jockey Club Stakes - Colonel Sir Robert Richardson
  • The Jockey Club Stakes - Colonel Sir Robert Richardson
  • Birds of Paradise - Major Farmer
  • Birds of Paradise - Major Farmer
  • My Fair Lady - Colonel Pickering
  • Bedroom Farce - Ernest
Sources:

Awards and nominations