Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
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Robert Wagner

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Robert Wagner

Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on Two and a Half Men (2007–2008) and NCIS (2010–2019).

In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films (1997, 1999, 2002), as well as for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979).

Wagner was born in Detroit, to Thelma Hazel Alvera (née Boe; 1898–1993), a former telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner Sr. (1890–1964), a traveling salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. He had one older sister, Mary Scott (1926–2023).

Wagner's mother came from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her parents were both immigrants from Norway, who married in La Crosse in 1887. Wagner's father was a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan. His parents were from Germany.

The family moved to Bel-Air, an upscale area of Los Angeles, in 1937.

Wagner became interested in acting and, after an unsuccessful screen test directed by Fred Zinnemann for his film Teresa (1951), was represented by Albert R. Broccoli. He made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950), was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century Fox.

"I started off as an ingenue", recalled Wagner. "I was 19 years old. I was the boy next door. But you always felt you could work your way up, that you could have a better part in the next picture. [Head of Fox] Darryl Zanuck was always placing me in different positions."

Wagner's first film for Fox was Halls of Montezuma (1951), a World War II film. Wagner had a supporting role, with Richard Widmark as the star. The studio then had him perform a similar function in another war movie, The Frogmen (1951), again with Widmark; the cast also included another young male under contract to the studio, Jeffrey Hunter, with whom Wagner would often work. Let's Make It Legal (1951) was a comedy where Wagner again supported an older star, in this case Claudette Colbert.

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