Robert Reed (October 19, 1932 – May 12, 1992) was an American prolific character actor of stage, film and television actor. In his four decades of television, he played Lawrence Preston's (played by E.G. Marshall) lawyer partner and son, Kenneth Preston, on the popular 1960s TV legal drama, The Defenders. But he was best remembered for portraying the father, Mike Brady, on the long-running 1970s sitcom, The Brady Bunch, from 1969 to 1974. He also had a recurring role as Lt. Adam Tobias on Mannix.
Life and career
Early life
An only child, Reed was born John Robert Rietz, Jr., in the northeast Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois. His parents were Helen (née Teaverbaugh) and John Robert Rietz, Sr.[1] His parents were high school sweethearts, having been married since they were 18. Growing up in the midst of the depression, this era wasn't the right time for his parents to get a big family. His father worked in the government, his mother was a housewife. Reed spent much of his childhood in Muskogee, Oklahoma, as well as Navasota, Texas, and later studied Shakespeare in college. After entering Muskogee, his father, John Sr., decided to work as a farmer, where he chose to raise turkeys, which they were produced 200 of those a year. Despite his father's new job, John Jr. didn't have any interest in turkeys nor farming.
In his youth, he joined the 4-H agricultural club, and showed calves livestock much like many other teenagers at the time. He was deliberately interested in both acting and music, while attending Central High School in Muskogee, where he did both of those, he wasn't isolated. He was also the most handsomest, yet very popular student in high school. He and his other classmates hung out at the ice cream parlor, but it was John Jr., who went to the stage, where he engaged in speech and singing. During breaks, he also put on plays themselves, practicing each one, all night long.
John Jr. knew he was going to make it, by the time he and his family arrived there, he has appeared in every play, who in turn, got the majority of leading roles. He was also a consummate professional, who demanded the same of his peers, as a teenager. He got very serious over being an actor. When he wasn't acting with his phone skills, he would do theirs. In his junior year, he took a radio and speech class. His charming delivery led him to becoming the city's radio disc jockey, reading news and commercials. John Jr. graduated from Central in 1950, his drama teacher told him the next step in theater programming was at Northwestern. Before he attended the university, both future actors: Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal, attended and graduated there. John also wanted to attend the same university, with a major in theater, however, his parents had other plans for him, hence, they weren't too excited about him entering into theatre, they wanted him to either study law or any other profession in college, but despite his parents' judgment, he took acting classes, anyways. He chose to be an actor.
He was educated at Northwestern University, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi, and later transferred to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London.
During his years Northwestern, he appeared in a play. He also got to invite a lot of friends in Summer Stock in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania. It was under the direction of Alvine Krause, a celebrated Northwestern drama coach, his dream came true. She also wanted the very best from her students. John performed over 8 plays in college all with leading roles in them, while mastering Shakespeare and everything else. He also practiced his skills from a camera, as well; while revealing a rarely seen, comical side. While he was working real hard in college, he was keeping a private secret, he would never tell anybody that he was gay, esp. his best friend, Tam Spiva. Despite that, he was dating a woman.
To become an actor, he changed his name from John Rietz Jr. to Robert Reed.
Well-known character actor
Reed made his first guest-starring appearance in an episode of Father Knows Best, a role which led him to co-star in The Defenders. The part also led to other roles such as: Men into Space, Family Affair, Ironside, The Mod Squad, Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre, Lawman, 4 episodes ofLove, American Style, Chase, Harry O, McCloud, Jigsaw John, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Crazy Like a Fox, The Paper Chase, among many others.
Career
He first gained fame in the early 1960s for starring along with E. G. Marshall in the television drama series The Defenders from 1961 to 1965. He also appeared in the 1968 film Star!
The Brady Bunch
A play, Barefoot in the Park led him to two new contracts, at Paramount Studios and ABC, both in 1968. The minute that studio had lost interest in the series, they planned for Reed to star in something else. Originally titled, The Bradley Bunch, the show would feature a widowed man, who had 3 kids from a previous marriage, marrying a divorcee, also with 3 kids, from a previous marriage. According to former Gilligan's Island creator Sherwood Schwartz, he said about the show's plan for 6 kids (meaning 3 boys/3 girls) to create a well-blended family: "I read a small item in the Los Angeles Times. It said that that year, 29% of all marriages had a previous spouse with a child or children from that other marriage. It was a social phenomenon that was occurring, and I said, 'I could take advantage of that.'"[citation needed]
Reed was actually the producers' second choice for the role of Mike Brady; after Gene Hackman was rejected, because he was too unfamiliar at the time. Also starring on The Brady Bunch was a popular singer/unknown actress Florence Henderson, who played the role of Mike's wife Carol Brady; after her best friend Shirley Jones turned down that role, in favor of another sitcom, The Partridge Family, which debuted the year later, also on ABC. Also casted on the show was the only familiar actress Ann B. Davis, as the maid, Alice Nelson, along with a half-dozen unknown stars such as: Maureen McCormick as the oldest girl in the family, Marcia Brady, Eve Plumb as the center girl in the family, Jan Brady, Susan Olsen as the youngest girl in the family, Cindy Brady, Barry Williams as the oldest boy in the family, Greg Brady, Christopher Knight as the center boy in the family, Peter Brady and Mike Lookinland as the youngest boy in the family, Bobby Brady. Despite of Bob's temper tantrums both on- and off- the set, the entire cast got along well with him, esp. Olsen, who became best friends with her TV father's real-life daughter, who in turn made a guest appearance on the show. Despite of her friendship with Reed's daughter, there was no father and daughter connection until Caroline became an adult.[citation needed]
However, unlike The Defenders, his show would be a lighthearted comedy. He also read the script and thought it would be too silly for any network to be interested. He wanted extra material. However, he was happy to star in the pilot, despite his better judgment; however, he did the exact opposite. Despite not being a Top 30 show during its five season run, which competed against two highly-rated TV series, The High Chaparral for 2 seasons - (1969-1971) and Sanford and Son for 3 1/2 seasons - (1972-1974), The Brady Bunch was obviously an audience favorite show of the 1970s, and appeared on dozens of magazines. It was one of six series' to be canceled in 1974 (along with other ABC shows such as: Room 222, The F.B.I., The Partridge Family, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, and Here's Lucy - to make room for new shows), after 5 seasons, and 117 episodes, due to low ratings, however, the show had continued to enjoy its success in strong syndication, including TV Land.
From the beginning of The Brady Bunch, Reed was unhappy with his role of Mike Brady. He felt that acting in the often silly sitcom was beneath his serious Shakespearean training. Despite his discontent with the show, by most accounts, he genuinely liked his co-stars and was a beloved father figure to the younger cast members. In his efforts to bring more realism to the show, Reed often locked horns with the show's creator and executive producer, Sherwood Schwartz. Reed presented Schwartz with frequent, usually hand-written memorandums detailing why a certain character's motivation did not make sense, and/or why it was wrong for a certain episode to combine elements of different styles, such as farce and satire.
To kept odds with his private life and his series, each and every one of his Brady Bunch stars knew he was gay, esp. for both Olsen & Henderson, despite seeing in the company of young ladies. Nobody talked about the homosexuality issue, esp. Reed himself, by all accounts, he really didn't have a long-term relationship with a man. His desire of keeping his homosexuality a secret had heightened the attention the set of The Brady Bunch. In the 1970s, it was absolutely common for actors to keep their homosexuality, a secret.
Reed was particularly appalled by The Brady Bunch's fifth-season finale, "The Hair-Brained Scheme". He sent Schwartz a memo picking apart the episode, but Schwartz did not receive the memo promptly enough to change the show as Reed wanted. As a result, the disgusted Reed told Schwartz they'd have to do the episode without him, which they did, changing the shooting schedule and giving Mike Brady's lines to other characters. As a result Schwartz fired him from the series — which turned out not to make a difference because The Brady Bunch was canceled after that.
Reed reprised the role of Mike Brady in the variety show The Brady Bunch Hour, as well as The Brady Brides, several made-for-TV Brady movies, and another series that followed, The Bradys.
During the run of The Brady Bunch, Reed also had a recurring role as Lieutenant Adam Tobias on the television drama Mannix from 1967 to 1975.
Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady in all the episodes, with the exception of 1, who was very aware of Robert being gay, when she was only 5.[2] She was also in awe of him, the minute she met him, having been totally close, to share relevant issues, exchanging letters and even appeared on several interviews with other Brady Bunch castmates, before his death. Susan Olsen said in a 2010 interview on Blog Talk Radio.com’s, Flashback, with Carey Fisher, if Robert was told to calm down, despite of his tempers that flared on- and off- the set of The Brady Bunch, “I don't know what one thing Robert Reed had to do to keep calm, but I do know that he was very, very calm, nice and good to us kids, and we were never aware of the problems that he was creating with the producers, we never let that show. Oh, and he did very much, and I got to say that he was really good about that and it's only been [as an adult] that I've learned 'Did you saw all guys?' When I grow up and I did the last carnation of 'The Brady Bunch,' with the original cast, which was called 'The Bradys,' I got to watch Bob have a hissy fit, and I admired the guy so much. He was such a wonderful actor. There are so many reasons to go, 'Well, of course, this wonderful Shakespearean actor is stuck on this wretched sitcom, and it's so silly and stupid,' I got to witness some of the dumb stuff he was having a fit about. He had an absolute tirade over Ann B. Davis [who played Alice], she had to walk in the door with a lit birthday cake, singing 'Happy Birthday.' OK, well there's a Brady moment for you, 'Well, Bob's going, there's no way he's could light those candles and not have the door blow out and come in here all by herself, who cares, who cares? And he walked off the set, after that. It was just anything he could find, yeah, but it was the first time I saw him witnessed getting mad.” Olsen had responded in a 2009 interview on On Screen & Beyond w/ Brian Zemrak, if Reed was very uncomfortable with his personality: “No. He was uncomfortable, probably in the same way that I was uncomfortable, this annoying that I wasn’t good at it, and he knew, he kinds had 2 left feet, and he couldn’t sing, but he wanted to do it. So, he was finding it very interesting. He took it on like another performance adventure. He was a real actor, so he thought it’d be fun, and certainly, when it come to doing the comedy and particularly, the broad sketch comedy, he was having a ball!! He was having more fun than anybody on the set, etc. for when he was dancing --- it looked like he was enjoying it, but was in pain.” Susan said of her on- and off-screen chemistry with her TV father, who also won the role of Mike Brady: “Robert Reed, for all the complaining he did about ‘The Brady Bunch,’ this is the man that walked unto the set, refused to do lines about ‘Strawberry’s Smelling Good when they’re Cooked,’ because strawberries don’t have an odor, when they’re cooked, and this is the guy that’s willing to do anything for Sid & Marty Krofft, wearing a bunny suit, wear dresses, sing and dance. Well, if you watch, there’s 1 segment where he gets to play a retarded Christopher Columbus, and he’s in his element, he loved broad comedy, loved it, and nobody knew that he did that. That was the reason why he wanted to do the show, I think it was for the comedy sketches.” When it made clear that Reed had been gay, ever since he was 18, he publicly refused to talk about it, however, the last thing Olsen brought up was about his gay behavior off- the set of The Brady Bunch: “He refused to take the dress off. I mean, I knew him, since I was 9, and he was gay, but I never thought of him as a cross-dresser. Florence made comments and stuff, I don’t think Bob particularly got it for real out of a very good dress. I think Bob would’ve liked [very much] to come out of the closet, but, that was the era where if you came out of the closet everyone, ‘Oh, you’re wonderful, you’re so great!,’ and they never fired him!” After cancelation, she along with the rest of her TV family stayed so close, for 18 years, until Robert's death. The cancelation of The Brady Bunch did not prevent Reed, Olsen nor their castmates from reuniting each other, as they appeared in a lot of Brady Bunch movies and/or TV specials. Olsen appeared in every reunion, with the exception of 1 (at the time she was newly married in 1988). John Sr.'s (Robert's real-life father) death in 1975, drew the relationship closer between Reed and Olsen, as Olsen delivered her condolences to her TV father, before attending her freshman year in high school.
After The Brady Bunch
After the end of The Brady Bunch in 1974, Reed acted on the stage and made many guest star appearances on other television shows and television movies, including Pray for the Wildcats and SST: Death Flight. He won critical acclaim for his portrayal of a doctor who wants to undergo a sex-change operation in a two-part episode of Medical Center in 1975. Reed also appeared in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, Rich Man, Poor Man and Roots. He also guest starred on Wonder Woman, playing the Falcon. Other notable guest appearances include: Hawaii Five-O, Charlie's Angels, Galactica 1980,Vega$, and Murder, She Wrote for at least three appearances. Reed played the regular role of Dr. Adam Rose on the critically acclaimed (though short-lived) hospital drama Nurse during the 1981-1982 television season. In 1986, he played the role of Lloyd Kendall on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He also made multiple appeances in Hunter (U.S. TV series) and Jake and the Fatman.
In 1971, Reed was the defendant in Anglia TV v. Reed, an important case in English contract common law. Reed lost the lawsuit for £2,750.[3]
Hobbies
He had 10 hobbies: animals, fishing, photography, traveling, Shakespearean poetry, swimming, collecting clothes, dining, cooking and gardening.
Personal life
Reed was married to Marilyn Rosenberg (1954–1959). The couple had one daughter, Karen Rietz, who was born in 1956. Karen had a small role in an episode of The Brady Bunch entitled "The Slumber Caper." Her character's name was Karen and she is credited as "Carolyn Reed." This episode also reunited Reed with his co-star from The Defenders, E. G. Marshall.
Reed felt that his career required him to be secretive about his homosexuality.[4] Nonetheless, most of the Brady Bunch cast members knew of his sexual orientation, and expressed outrage at the media's exploitation of it after his death, most notably Barry Williams.
At the end of the third year of The Brady Bunch in 1972, Reed took his own real-life family, his parents, along with their own on-screen Brady Bunch family to vacations in New York City and London, England - to show the cities where he fell in love with. In New York, he introduced the young actors to Broadway, then, they headed on a cruise to England where his family & Brady Bunch co-stars visited most of Reed's spots. His co-stars were each given cameras that were purchased by him, to take pictures of all the exciting things. He enjoyed a lot of time spending with his on-screen kids, when he rarely had the time to spend with his real-life daughter, Caroline. But years after the divorce, Marilyn moved back to Chicago, where she got remarried. He even allowed Karen to be adopted by her stepfather.[5]
He purchased a home in Pasadena, California, with the money he made from The Brady Bunch, and invited his parents to live under his wing with him.
His father, John Rietz, Sr., died in 1975; his mother continued to live with her son, despite of her husband's death, where she served as a hostess. The two got along real well with each other, just before his death, where Reed's relationship with his mother diminished, therefore, she moved back to Oklahoma.
Reed was very close friends with actress Anne Haney, best known for her portrayal of social worker Mrs. Sellner in Mrs. Doubtfire. She was the one who informed his daughter of his homosexuality and his battle with AIDS. She often got his HIV medication for him under a pseudonym to protect his confidentiality.
Death
Reed died on May 12, 1992, in Pasadena, California, after a six month battle with colon lymphoma; he tested HIV positive the previous year but did not have AIDS at the time of his death as has been reported in the media. He was cremated and his ashes are interred in Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie, Illinois next to his grandparents, Harvey and Elizabeth Rietz, and an uncle who died in childhood. Joined by many mourners at a private memorial were the cast of The Brady Bunch, and his best friends Anne Haney & E.G. Marshall. Both his mother, Helen and daughter, Caroline, refused to attend his memorial.
Quotes:
Robert: "Every television actor says the same thing when you ask him why he's doing theater: to work up the juices. But the basic reason is the script. In television, the scripts aren't very good." (Source: New York Times.com)
Robert: "I was young, brash, so-called classically trained and well educated." (Source: People.com)
Robert on accepting the role as Mike Brady: "Sherwood gave me the plot that sounded wonderful. He put together with statistics of broken families, so I said, 'It was going to be comedic, but not, no it's going to be life-like.' But then, I got the script of it, and it was one gag onto another, and I thought, 'I don't think this has much of a chance, but they tell me, you can either do this or Mission: Impossible,' anyway, I did this." (Source: E!Online.com)
Robert just before his death: "In children's theater, you show the ideal. The very idea is to aspire to it." (Source: EW.com)
Robert who said in 1991 about his public feud with father/son producers Sherwood Schwartz and Lloyd J. Schwartz: "Sherwood and his cohorts, Lloyd, and whoever else he had writing, had no sense of reality whatsoever. I mean, they'd write this beyond-farce 'Gilligan's Island', look at it, and say, 'Yeah, that's great. That's wonderful. We've done it.' And try as you might, you couldn't talk them out of it." (Source: GrowingUpBrady by former co-star Barry Williams)
Robert who said in 1986: "You have to have a fairly healthy sense of humor. You can't just go out on stage and be funny. You have to work at it." (Source: TheAdvocate.com)
Robert when he was finally happy about his job in teaching Shakespearean: "That's what I'm going to do for the rest of my life." (Source: People.com)
Robert when he chaperoned the cast of The Brady Bunch, on a trip to England, before fishing: "There was Mike Lookinland [Bobby] hauling in one fish after another!" (Source: People.com)
Robert when he felt guilty about his erratic behavior, both on- and off- the set of The Brady Bunch: "I should have tried to get out of the show, rather than inflict my views on them." (Source: People.com)
Robert who said in 1988, on accepting the role as Mike Brady: "Sherwood gave me the plot that sounded wonderful. He put together with statistics of broken families, so I said, 'It was going to be comedic, but not, no it's going to be life-like.' But then, I got the script of it, and it was one gag onto another, and I thought, 'I don't think this has much of a chance, but they tell me, you can either do this or Mission: Impossible,' anyway, I did this." (Source: E!Online.com)
Robert who said in 1992: "So many of us on these shows, create air sock families, and it's very difficult to do, not so much for the adults because we're grown actors. But for the kids, that's another story and to make an ensemble group of kids and adults, and make it seem as they live together. And if we accomplish that, we're very pleased." (Source: Rerunit.com)
Robert when described he shouldn't be best remembered as Mike Brady: "It was just as inconsequential as can be. To the degree that it serves as a baby-sitter, I'm glad we did it. But I do not want it on my tombstone." (Source: People.com)
Robert on moaning about The Brady Bunch being that of another cult classic sitcom that was also created by Sherwood Schwartz: "I knew when I saw it we were off to Gilligan's Island. (Source: People.com)
Robert: "Before I was reading science fiction, I read Hemingway. Farewell to Arms was my first adult novel that said not everything ends well. It was one of those times where reading has meant a great deal to me, in terms of my development - an insight came from that book." (Source: ThinkExist.com)
Robert who said in 1971: "Any actor who changes wardrobes all day long as part of his job is on an ego trip if he enjoys getting dressed up on his own time. That's why you find me in jeans and sneakers." (Source: The Hour.com)
Robert who said in 1981: "If I had my druthers, I don't know that I'd do a whole lot more TV. But one does not always have one's choice." (Source: The Albany Sunday Herald.com)
Robert: "I'm not an expert in this field - anymore than I was a slave owner in 'Roots' or the father of six children in 'The Brady Bunch.' But despite my lack of expertise in the area, I find it an intriguing social phenomenon and one worthy of study. Did you know there were 2 million runaways last year?" (Source: Sarasota Journal.com)
Robert who didn't knock work on TV: "It takes a better actor. In movies, you have the best producers, best directors, lot of time ... in TV, it's six or seven shows and no help at all to make drivel look good." (Source: The Albany Sunday Herald.com)
Robert when unsuspecting young ladies who accepted dates from him who often find themselves fixing meals: "I don't myself cook for two reasons. I don't know how, and I have no intention of learning." (Source: The Hour.com)
Robert who feuded Sherwood Schwartz about better script writing for The Brady Bunch: "We fought over the scripts. Always over the scripts. The producer, Sherwood Schwartz, had done 'Gilligan's Island' .. Just gag lines. That would have been what 'The Brady Bunch' would have been if I hadn't protested." (Source: The Associated Press.com)
Robert: "That was what got me The Defender's job. There were literally hundreds of young actors around, and the reason the producers looked at that particular film was because they were looking or a young lawyer, and they knew that there was a young actor playing a lawyer in it. Obviously, they couldn't see everyone. So that was my lucky break." (Source: The Toledo Blade.com)
Robert who said in 1978: "We're dealing with a social problem of enormous dimensions, not little kids who say, 'All right, if you won't let me do such-and-such, I'll run away." (Source: Sarasota Journal.com)
Robert who said in 1983: "The networks are run by very bright people in most cases, but people who are totally outside the realm of theatre. They come from business and advertising and banking, and even lumber." (Source: The Windsor Star.com)
Robert who talked about the new supremacy of macho leading men that had put several older, familiar actors out of work: "The latest at home [in the United States] is for the networks to go for new faces. Most known actors are getting too expensive." (Source: The Windsor Star.com)
[edit] References
- ^ The Missouri Ancestry of Robert Reed ("The Brady Bunch")
- ^ http://www.findadeath.com/
- ^ "Anglia Television Ltd. v. Reed". http://faculty.law.ubc.ca/biukovic/supplements/anglia.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-18.
- ^ Rutledge, Leigh W. (2003). The Gay Book of Lists. Alyson Publishing. ISBN 1555837409
- ^ http://www.biography.com
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