Robert Rockwell

Robert Rockwell was an American stage film radio and television actor He is best known for playing the handsome but awkward biology teacher Philip Boynton in the radio and television sitcom Our Miss Brooks opposite Eve Arden A native of Lake Bluff Illinois Rockwell studied at the Pasadena Playhouse from which he obtained a masters degree During World War II he enlisted in the US Navy for four years serving in Washington DC Dramatic roles often eluded him however after beginning his career as a contract player for Republic Studios he appeared over his almost 50year acting career in more than 350 television episodes and on stage opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac and with Ginger Rogers during the 1960s in a San Diego production of Whitfield Cooks play A More Perfect Union He appeared in the first Superman television show episode as Clark Kents father JorEl in 1952 He appeared in a 1959 Perry Mason episode The case of the Deadly Toy as love interest to the defendant Claire Allison as Dick Benedict He starred in the 1961 Perry Mason episode The Case of the Misguided Missile as an Air Force officer courtmartialled on a murder charge He later starred in the 1962 Perry Mason episodes The Case of the Lurid Letter as Everett Rixby a high school principal and the murderer Cole B Troy in The Case of the Shapely Shadow He also appeared as Ed Purvis in the 1965 episode Perry Mason episode The Case of the Candy Queen Rockwell starred in his own ABC westernthemed television series The Man from Blackhawk in the 19591960 season Rockwell was cast as the Blackhawk Insurance Companys key investigator Sam Logan who is assigned to weed out fraud in the payment of claims He also played Sam Thompson in Thompsons Ghost Tom Bennett in The Bill Cosby Show4106 and Officer Russo in Adam12 In 1967 he played a littering tourist in the Lassie episode Lassies Litter Bit an iconic episode which earned a trip for Lassie to the White House to shake hands with then First Lady Ladybird Johnson who had used the famous collie in her Keep America Beautiful Campaign Rockwell was a founding member of the California Artists Radio Theatre He played standard leads in a couple of antiCommunistera features including Republics The Red Menace in which he is cast as a returning veteran of World War II who is duped by communists Later in his career he appeared on episodes of Petticoat Junction Growing Pains and Beverly Hills 90210 His appearances in commercials and voiceovers totaled more than 200 most notably as the armchair grandfather treating his grandson to a piece of candy in the 1995 version of the Werthers Original candy spot