ACTOR
Robert Fuller
- Known for
- Emergency! (1972), Return of the Seven (1966), Laramie (1959), Wagon Train (1957)
77 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Robert Fuller is an actor best known for Emergency!, Return of the Seven and Laramie.
All facts (77)
- #001
When Robert Fuller took a recurring role in the final season of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), his character, Wade Harper, was the great-great-grandson of Jess Harper, the character he had played decades earlier in Laramie (1959).
- #002
Long before they appeared together on Emergency! (1972), Robert Fuller was a close friend of singer/actor Julie London and Bobby Troup (for more than 40 years).
- #003
After appearing in the film The Hard Ride (1971), Fuller did not want to take a role in Emergency! (1972), but Jack Webb insisted that he appear alongside Julie London (Webb's ex-wife). Fuller reluctantly accepted the part because of Webb's insistence. Long after Emergency! (1972) was cancelled, Fuller and London remained close friends until her death on 18 October 2000.
- #004
Before becoming a successful actor, Robert Fuller was the assistant manager of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.
- #005
Robert Fuller was drafted into the United States Army and served in Korea.
- #006
A year before Doug McClure's death, Fuller reunited with him one last time on Maverick (1994), where both had small roles as Riverboat Poker Players.
- #007
With John Smith's death on 25 January 1995, Fuller, Robert Crawford Jr. and Dennis Holmes became the only surviving cast members of Laramie (1959).
- #008
Like his closest friends Julie London, Bobby Troup and James Drury, Robert Fuller was a heavy smoker until his first wife, Patricia Lyons, was diagnosed with cancer in 1984. From that moment on, he quit smoking.
- #009
Robert Fuller reunited with former Emergency! (1972) co-star Randolph Mantooth on both of their series: The Fall Guy (1981) and Diagnosis Murder (1993).
- #010
Like Emergency! (1972) co-star Kevin Tighe, Robert Fuller served in the United States Army.
- #011
Robert Fuller has seven hobbies: fishing, playing tennis, playing golf, gardening, horseback riding, travelling and tending to farm animals.
- #012
Robert Fuller is best known to the public for his role as Jess Harper in Laramie (1959) and his role as Dr. Kelly Brackett in Emergency! (1972).
- #013
Before retiring from acting at the age of 67, Robert Fuller made a guest appearance as Wade Harper in the two-part finale of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).
- #014
Robert Fuller was the only guest star killed twice in the same episode of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), the two-part series finale in which he played a dual role.
- #015
After a tour of duty in the United States Army, Robert Fuller met the young, rising singer and film actress Julie London in 1955, when he stopped into one of the clubs in Los Angeles, California, to have a beer with her future husband, singer/songwriter Bobby Troup; this began a friendship that lasted until London's death in 2000, a year after her husband's death. Then, several years later, London first met Fuller when they worked together on an episode of Laramie (1959). About eleven years after that, they would share top billing as medical partners on Emergency! (1972).
- #016
Robert Fuller met Western character actor and film star James Best, who appeared as a guest star alongside him in the sixth episode of Laramie (1959); Best, who was seven years older than Fuller, shared almost the same birthday, just three days apart. They were very good friends for 56 years, until Best's death on 6 April 2015.
- #017
Before becoming a successful actor, Robert Fuller danced in films with many actresses, from Jane Russell to Marilyn Monroe.
- #018
Robert Fuller learned how to be a cowboy from his father.
- #019
At the 20th anniversary of the Western Festival, Robert Fuller read the memorial speech for his closest friend and former Laramie (1959) co-star John Smith, who died 15 years earlier on January 25, 1995 [March 20, 2010].
- #020
Robert Fuller used to play tennis with Doug McClure and Michael Landon.
- #021
Despite good ratings, Emergency! (1972) was put on hiatus in 1977 after its sixth season, but returned for six special films in 1979 before being cancelled for good. The six television films are considered the seventh season. Fuller returned for only one of those six films.
- #022
After Laramie (1959) was cancelled, and contrary to incorrect claims to the opposite, Fuller did not replace Robert Horton in the final two seasons of Wagon Train (1957), because Horton had left the series long before Fuller joined the cast.
- #023
Robert Fuller danced with Marilyn Monroe in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
- #024
Robert Fuller also had a house in Lake Okeechobee, Florida.
- #025
Before starring in Emergency! (1972), Robert Fuller was a big fan of Jack Webb's television series.
- #026
Robert Fuller appeared semi-regularly on the game show The Hollywood Squares (Syndication) (1971). His job on the show was often to deliberately give a wrong answer, but in a way that could convince the contestant that this might be one of the rare times he was right.
- #027
A cowboy enthusiast, Fuller began riding horses when he was only 15 years old.
- #028
Robert Fuller was awarded the Silver Spur Award [October 12, 2007].
- #029
Robert Fuller appeared on the cover of TV Guide five times.
- #030
Robert Fuller Fandom and the National Festival of the West gave him a bronze statue of Jess Harper on a horse for his many years of work in the entertainment industry [March 18, 2006].
- #031
Robert Fuller was inducted into the Great Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. [April 12, 2008].
- #032
Before moving to North Texas, Fuller and former Emergency! (1972) co-star Randolph Mantooth were reported to have had a falling out. Although they were friends, Fuller (who was then newly married to Jennifer Savidge) was distancing himself from Hollywood to prepare for a permanent move to Texas.
- #033
In June 2012, Robert Fuller underwent rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder, and then had surgery once more because of some blood clots in his arm; both operations were successful.
- #034
Robert Fuller worked with Hugh O'Brian on an episode of Paradise (1988), in which O'Brian reprised the character Wyatt Earp, whom he had played decades earlier.
- #035
Robert Fuller began his career in 1952 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a minor contract player.
- #036
To land his role in Teenage Thunder (1957), both Fuller and Chuck Courtney worked hard to convince director Paul Helmick that he was man enough for the part. Helmick had initially wanted Edd Byrnes, but after seeing Chuck and Robert's performance, Helmick gave him the role of the villain Maurie Weston.
- #037
Actor Chuck Courtney had taught Fuller to ride horses before Fuller became an actor.
- #038
Robert Fuller attends the annual Western Festival held in Arizona, where he answers questions and signs autographs.
- #039
Fuller's friends Peter Marshall, Bernie Kopell, Julie London, James Drury and Ruta Lee referred to him as "Bobby."
- #040
Fuller met John Smith and Doug McClure while working on the film Friendly Persuasion (1956), although none of them appeared in the film.
- #041
Fuller's parents divorced when he was six, and in 1939 he moved with his mother to Key West, Florida. He enrolled at the Miami Military Academy but dropped out in the ninth grade at the age of 15. His mother, Betty, later remarried a man named Robert Simpson, with whom she co-owned a dance studio.
- #042
Fuller was seven years younger than Julie London, his co-star on Emergency! (1972).
- #043
Fuller witnessed his Emergency! co-star Julie London's first singing performance in London.
- #044
Fuller's longtime best friend James Drury was a big fan of Fuller's own series Emergency! (1972).
- #045
Fuller went fishing with James Best.
- #046
Fuller first met Robert Horton and James Drury in 1954 while under contract at MGM Studios.
- #047
Wagon Train (1957), Laramie (1959) and Emergency! (1972) were all shot at Universal Studios.
- #048
Fuller worked with Dan Duryea on episodes of two different series: Laramie (1959) and Wagon Train (1957), as well as on the film Incident at Phantom Hill (1966).
- #049
Doug McClure's daughters Tane McClure and Valerie McClure attended Fuller's wedding to Jennifer Savidge on May 19, 2001.
- #050
Because of his role on Emergency! (1972), Jack Webb gave Fuller a medical dictionary so that he could pronounce the terminology.
- #051
Fuller was the first choice for the role of Holling Vincoeur on Northern Exposure (1990), but he turned it down, and the role went to John Cullum instead.
- #052
Although Fuller's contract for Emergency! (1972) included a clause requiring him to direct, he never directed an episode because of his busy schedule.
- #053
In nearly every interview, Fuller frequently mentions Julie London.
- #054
Fuller turned down the role of Ray Milland's young detective partner on Markham (1959) because he wanted to do westerns, and he was offered Laramie (1959) shortly afterward.
- #055
Fuller was a longtime friend of the late Bobby Troup (Julie London's second husband) and spoke at Troup's funeral on February 22, 1999. Both Fuller and Troup played emergency room doctors on Emergency! (1972) in the early 1970s.
- #056
Fuller worked with Michael Landon's son, Michael Landon Jr., on Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988).
- #057
Fuller was a contract player for Universal Pictures between 1959 and 1977.
- #058
Robert Fuller and Alex Cord were neighbors; they met on an episode of Laramie (1959). Before Fuller retired, Cord persuaded him to move to Texas, where Fuller became Cord's neighbor.
- #059
Robert Fuller was best friends with James Drury, James Best, Clu Gulager, Julie London, Alex Cord and Denny Miller.
- #060
On April 16, 1975, Robert Fuller was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #061
In the 1970s, Robert Fuller was a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (on poisoning).
- #062
Robert Fuller worked with James Drury on episodes of three series: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993), Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993) and The Virginian (1962), though Drury did not appear alongside his closest friend in both episodes.
- #063
In the early 1970s, Robert Fuller was a spokesman for Budweiser Malt Liquor.
- #064
Robert Fuller and his wife Jennifer Savidge attended the 100th birthday party of his lifelong friend Norman Lloyd, held in Los Angeles on November 9, 2014, together with James Best. Norman Lloyd also appeared in St. Elsewhere (1982).
- #065
On October 27, 2018, Robert Fuller was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.
- #066
Robert Fuller was a childhood hero to both future actors and Western enthusiasts Nancy Stafford and Clarence Gilyard Jr.; both grew up watching Laramie (1959) and Wagon Train (1957), and both later starred alongside Fuller.
- #067
Robert Fuller taught his former Laramie (1959) co-star Dennis Holmes to swear, smoke and drink when Holmes was 12 years old.
- #068
In the 1980s, Robert Fuller appeared in a CBS pilot that was not picked up as a series.
- #069
In the mid-1960s, while driving his luxury camper pickup and small off-road motorcycle, Robert Fuller briefly appeared in a documentary about the American automobile lifestyle.
- #070
Robert Fuller worked with Harry Morgan on episodes of two different series: Hec Ramsey (1972) and Blacke's Magic (1986).
- #071
Robert Fuller is the stepson of dancer and actor Robert Cole.
- #072
Robert Fuller trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York under Sanford Meisner.
- #073
Fuller worked with friends on the series: John Smith on Laramie (1959), John McIntire and Denny Miller on Wagon Train (1957), and Julie London and Bobby Troup on Emergency! (1972).
- #074
Fuller worked with Eddie Albert on episodes of two different series: Laramie (1959) and Murder, She Wrote (1984).
- #075
Like James Best, Fuller was a fan of detective series.
- #076
Robert Fuller is the son of dancer Betty Simpson.
- #077
Although he had been a good friend of James Best for a very long time and considered it a family matter, Fuller did not attend Best's funeral.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work