Actor Robert Hays was an Air Force Brat and attended Izmir American School in Izmir, Turkey during the Seventh Grade. He graduated in 1965 from Bellevue High School, Bellevue, Nebraska where his father was stationed at Offutt AFB. He began his career in theatre, performing in plays like Richard III and The Glass Menagerie at the famous Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. After spending several years in the theatre, he moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in film and television.
He first appeared on television in series such as Dr. med. Marcus Welby (1969), Wonder Woman (1975), Laverne & Shirley (1976) and Angie (1979). He made his feature-film debut in the landmark comedy Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Flugzeug (1980), starring as Ted Striker, the traumatized former pilot who must land the plane when the flight crew gets struck by food poisoning. He later reprised his role as Ted Striker in Die unglaubliche Reise in einem verrückten Raumschiff (1982).
After the massive success of Airplane!, Hays went on to star in many feature films including Ein Senkrechtstarter kratzt die Kurve (1981), Trenchcoat (1983), KatzenAuge (1985), Double Force (1992), Zurück nach Hause - Die unglaubliche Reise (1993), Ein tierisches Trio (1996), Robert Altman's Dr. T and the Women (2000) and Sex and a Girl - Dein erstes Mal vergisst Du nie! (2001), which he also produced. He starred in over 20 made-for-TV movies like NBC's Mister Roberts (1984), CBS' Irre jagen Irre (1987), and Lifetime's Entführung aus Leidenschaft (1996). He also had a surprise appearance in Sharknado 2 (2014). Hays also had numerous guest appearances on various television shows including Ein Hauch von Himmel (1994), Ein Wink des Himmels (1996) and Die wilden Siebziger (1998), and he starred in the series Der Mann vom anderen Stern (1986), FM (1989), Cutters (1993) and Kelly Kelly (1998).
