It is with great sadness that I write of the passing of actor Robert Quarry.

To most who read FANGORIA, he was COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (AIP 1970) who Returned (1971) before he found that DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN that same year, became a DEATHMASTER in 1972, met SUGAR HILL and went to the MADHOUSE in 1974.

He was more than that, though.  Born Robert Walter Quarry on November 3, 1925, the highly intelligent Quarry (who it was said had an I.Q. of 168) graduated High School at age 14, and started his acting career soon after on radio. Living in Santa Rose, Quarry won an acting scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse. When Alfred Hitchcock came to Santa Rosa, Quarry auditioned and won the role of Theresa Wright’s boyfriend in the 1943 classic SHADOW OF A DOUBT. His role, however, was all but cut out (he swore he appeared a nanosecond mooning over the actress), but it led to his Hollywood career, as well as a lifelong friend ship with Ms Wright and Joseph Cotten.

Cotton all but adopted Quarry, letting him stay in his home and even letting his daughter date the young actor as he pursued his career. Besides all his work in radio, Quarry did several unbilled bits (often as a dancer, for he was quite accomplished) in film as well as studying acting. He sat at the feet of wunderkind Orson Welles once at a party in awe.

Working at the famous TURNABOUT THEATRE in California, he was too young to appreciate the advice of a fan of the Puppet/Melodrama theatre during a rehearsal.  How many people could say they had Charlie Chaplin give them notes for a stage play?

A superb tennis player, he often played against and teamed with the major stars of the time, including longtime friend Katherine Hepburn.  A studio contract player, actors were groomed ,given acting lessons, and other valuable training .Besides being put into unbilled roles to learn, Quarry was often sent out as a “date’ set up by the studios with their upcoming starlets and major actresses. Quarry’s dashing good looks, wit, and dancing skills made him a popular date.

One of the people he dated was Veronica Lake, who was romantically linked to the actor for quite a while. Indeed they toured in shows like PETER PAN  and THE GRAMERCY GHOST , and Quarry often said that Lake was a superb Peter Pan (Quarry was Captain Darling/Captain Hook, prepping him for future villainous roles) .

He was signed to MGM briefly , but after a screen test for  MOGAMBO (1953 ) resulted in him being rejected since he made the two  main  stars, Clark Gable AND Ava Gardner seem old (!), he went over to 20th CENTURY FOX ,where he fared little better. He got to go to Japan for HOUSE OF BAMBOO (Fox, 1955) to play bad Guy Robert Ryan’s gunsel *.

History repeated itself with Quarry playing a major role in the Jennifer Jones film, GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE (1955) but to his horror, Quarry found he had been cut out when attending the previews.

While he does appear in the classic A KISS BEFORE DYING (MGM/UA, 1956) before being offed by star Robert Wagner, Quarry found his greatest successes were coming in TV and on stage.

In 1950, he played the role of Silvius in AS YOU LIKE IT (1950) at the Cort Theatre. He was handpicked for the role by the star, actress Katherine Hepburn as Rosalind, with Ernest Thesiger (THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Universal 1935) as Jacques. While performing, he met young David Carradine while his father, John, was performing as the Ragpicker in THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT.

He returned to Shakespeare as Lucentio in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, City Center Theatre, New York City, and 1951. In that cast was Thayer David (TV’s DARK SHADOWS) and future director George Roy Hill.

On television , he appeared on popular shows like THE MILLIONAIRE (1955) ,as well as national commercials. He once said he had three commercials running at once ,and was proud of a “Joy Soap “ commercial where he played a Japanese character in a what is now considered decidedly un-p.c.

A brief bout with cancer in 1965 gave him time to learn Bridge, which like so many things he did, he became an expert. 

He toured in plays like WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF and LION IN WINTER, He worked in the big budget race film WINNING (Universal, 1969), where once again his role was cut. Star Paul Newman made it up to Quarry by putting him in a major role in the film WUSA (Paramount, 1970).

Offered a role in a low budget soft core vampire film called the “The Loves of Count Iorga “(some prints still retain that title) but Quarry convinced the producers that a more straightforward horror film would get a wider release. Quarry filmed this film on weekends while working on the bigger budget WUSA.   AIP picked up the little horror film and excised most of the remainder of the soft core footage, releasing the film as COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE in 1970 with a GP rating.  Yorga went on to become a major box office hit, while the big budget WUSA tanked.

Quarry was now a major horror star. AIP signed him to an exclusive contract, which prevented him from playing in horror films for anyone but AIP. Thus ,was Quarry denied the chance to play the running character of the vampire that Karl Kolchak chased in the NIGHT STALKER series (1974-75), starring his long time friend Darren McGavin.  He did appear in a bigger budget Yorga sequel with friend Mariette Hartley (they giggled throughout the filming due the lisp his teeth gave him) and introduced a young Craig T Nelson to audiences.
Quarry was being groomed as a rival to Vincent Price ,whom he played against in DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972) .Quarry contradicted the rumor that Price & he disliked each other on that film ,and the two appeared together again in 1974’s MADHOUSE that was Price’s last AIP film ,as well as co-starring Peter Cushing.  In between Quarry produced his own vampire film DEATHMASTER (1972) which AIP picked up for distribution (Pick up the marvelous Retromedia DVD that has Quarry’s commentary on the making of the film).  

AIP popped Quarry into SUGAR HILL (1974) in a role originally written for a black actor. However, he was under contract, and Quarry went down to Texas to make the film. He had nothing but praise for his cast, and thought the film was better than expected. 

More TV work and some minor roles in other films (like in ROLLERCOASTER, 1977, Universal) followed, but AIP did not know what to do with the actor. Then in the 1980s, while crossing the street, Quarry was struck and dragged by an uninsured drunk driver. AIP promptly cancelled the actor’s contract, and Quarry was forced to use all his savings to pay for his mounting medical bills. After that, he was just about healed, when he was mugged, during which he had a heart attack.

Quarry withdrew and became a recluse, until fan and director Fred Olen Ray convinced him to take on a minor role in one of his films. Quarry so enjoyed the respect that Ray gave him that the pair continued to make more films.

Quarry once said to me,”You know, I lost everything, but I found out who my true friends are… Fred is one of them “.

Quarry had hoped to return to the stage, but another heart attack on opening night in Las Vegas ended all chance of that. He continued to work in films by Fred Olen Ray, wrote a cookbook, "Wonderfully Simple Recipes for Simply Wonderful Food’ in 1988, and was pleased with his rediscovery on the convention circuit.

He retired from acting in 1999, but had hoped to return to acting for director Mark Redfield this year in THE TELL TALE HEART.  

I had the pleasure of meeting Bob back in the 1990s when I interviewed him for SCARLET STREET magazine.  I was, to put it frankly, nervous. Bob saw that, said let’s go for a walk, and we walked around Hackensack while he regaled me with wonderful stories of his life. He also had me join him for dinner, and gave me his number to call him whenever I wanted.

I did, and he was a wealth of information, humor, advice, and a man who I looked up to as a friend and mentor.  My memories of him are numerous, and  I am saddened now that I no longer can call him to add to his stories .

He spent the last few months of his life in the Actor’s Home in California, and then in their hospital. Fred Olen Ray was among one of the people who visited him often. He passed away Friday, February 20, 2009.

I miss you, Uncle Bob.

-Kevin G Shinnick, publisher SCARLET THE FILM MAGAZINE  

* Most think the term means a gun-toting hoodlum due to Dashiel Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon”. However, Hammett slipped in "gunsel" — a street term for a young, gay man — as a joke.  Ryan and Quarry delighted in slipping the subtext in there, much to the horror of the studio heads stuck in the U.S. getting rushes weeks later.