Tall, handsome, and charismatic actor Robert Quarry was born on November
3, 1925 in Fresno, California. His father was a doctor. Robert's
grandmother first introduced him to the world of theater. Quarry
finished school at age 14 and was on the swimming team in high school.
In the early 1940s he was a busy juvenile actor on the radio; he even had
a regular part on the "Dr. Christian" program. Robert joined the Army
Combat Engineers at age 18 and formed a theatrical group which put on a
hit production of the play "The Hasty Heart' that Quarry both acted in
and helped produce.
Quarry made his film debut with a small role in
Alfred Hitchcock's Im Schatten des Zweifels (1943). He acted alongside
Paul Newman in both
Indianapolis (1969) and
Machenschaften (1970). Robert worked steadily
throughout the 1950s and 1960s in both movies and TV shows alike. Quarry
achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity with his splendidly
sardonic portrayal of suavely sinister bloodsucker Count Yorga in the
excellent drive-in hit
Junges Blut für Dracula (1970)
and its solid sequel
Die sieben Pranken des Satans (1971).
Robert capitalized on his newfound fright feature fame by appearing in
several hugely enjoyable horror pictures: at his commanding best as
vampire hippie guru Khorda in the offbeat
Deathmaster (1972), (Quarry was also
an associate producer on this film), driven scientist Darius Biederbeck
in
Die Rückkehr des Dr. Phibes (1972),
evil mob boss Morgan in the groovy blaxploitation zombie opus
Die schwarzen Zombies von Sugar Hill (1974), and quite amusing
as slimy producer Oliver Quayle in
Das Schreckenshaus des Dr. Death (1974). Quarry popped up in the
disaster outing
Achterbahn (1977) as the Mayor
of Los Angeles.
Alas, Robert's career was abruptly curtailed by a
serious car accident, but he thankfully recovered and made a welcome
comeback in the mid-1980s. He appeared in a slew of entertainingly
trashy low-budget movies for prolific exploitation flick director
Fred Olen Ray. Moreover, Quarry was featured in
guest spots on such TV shows as "Studio 57," "The Lone Ranger,"
"Hallmark Hall of Fame," "Mike Hammer," "The Fugitive," "Perry Mason,"
"Ironside," "Cannon," "The Rockford Files," and "Buck Rogers in the
25th Century." Outside of his work in movies and television, Robert
also had a highly distinguished stage career. Quarry acted in Broadway
productions of "As You Like It," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Richard
III," and "Gramercy Ghost." He acted alongside
Cloris Leachman in "Design for Living"
at the Stage Society in Los Angeles and in 1966 went on tour with a
traveling roadshow production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". He
regularly studied his craft at the Actors Lab in Hollywood.
Blessed
with an IQ of 168, Quarry was a Lifemaster at bridge. In addition,
Robert studied cooking at the Cardon Bleu School in Manhattan and was
the author of the best-selling cookbook "Wonderfully Simple Recipes for
Simply Wonderful Food." Robert Quarry died at age 83 from a heart
condition on February 20, 2009 in Woodland Hills, California. Good
night and rest in peace, Count Yorga.
