Hall of Fame: Robert Shayne

Actor Robert Shayne was born Robert Shaen Dawe on October 4, 1900. At the urging of his New York theatrical agent in the 1930’s, he took the stage name of Robert Shayne as it looked and sounded professional on a theatre marquee. But to several generations of fans of George Reeves and The Adventures of Superman, Robert Shayne is our very own ‘Inspector Henderson.’

Like many people who wound up in Hollywood, Robert Shayne did not start out to be a screen actor. Originally from Yonkers, New York, Shayne graduated from high school in Washington, D.C. and followed a series of occupation and professions until settling on acting. He worked in a grocery business in Indiana, graduated from Boston University with a degree in Business Administration, was an efficiency expert at a department store, worked as a newspaperman, in the real estate business, copywriter, an assistant manager and nearly joined the ministry of the Unitarian Church. While working in the South, Shayne joined a local theater group where he was encouraged to pursue the life of an actor.

Robert Shayne went to New York and the bright lights of Broadway, where he auditioned for everything in 1929. During the daytime, Shayne worked as a stockbroker making money until the famous 1929 ‘Black Friday’ crash of the stock market.

While in New York, Robert Shayne did his very first film work in a Bert Lahr short subject comedy filmed at the Warner Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn. Robert Shayne made his first trip to Hollywood where he worked at RKO in two films in 1934, including Keep ‘Em Rolling which starred Walter Huston. After the studio let him go, Robert Shayne returned to Broadway where he worked on stage until finally landing a contract at Warner Brothers in 1941. He had just finished co-starring with Katherine Hepburn in the Broadway play Without Love.

Robert Shayne permanently moved to Hollywood where the Warner studio tried him out in a series of Western short subjects that used quite bit of stock footage from their big budget horse operas. In the Technicolor Gun to Gun (1944) Robert Shayne is clearly seen being doubled for Errol Flynn in footage from Dodge City (1939)! For Jack L. Warner, Robert Shayne worked steadily in mostly supporting or small parts to the studio’s stable of stars like ‘Mr. Skeffington’ (1944) with Bette Davis, and Claude Rains, Three Strangers (1946) with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, and San Antonio (1945) with Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith. Shayne’s characters would always lose the leading lady to the film’s top-billed star.

After the end of World War II, Robert Shayne felt that his parts were being pushed even further into the background with the return of the studio’s leading men from the service. Shayne decided not to renew his contract at Warner Brothers and instead free-lanced as an actor. In an interview for Gary Grossman’s seminal book Superman: Serial to Cereal, Robert Shayne conceded that leaving Warner Brothers was a critical career mistake. Moving over to the ‘B’ factory of Monogram Pictures, Robert Shayne’s parts were definitely getting larger, but his pictures were getting smaller in both budget and quality. From time to time Shayne would get a half-way decent part in a major film like Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) for Universal with Susan Hayward, or even Let’s Live a Little (1948) for little Eagle-Lion Studios where he lost gorgeous Hedy Lamarr to Robert Cummings!

Robert Shayne was also a major force in Actor’s Equity and the Screen Actors Guild where he fought for better working conditions and better pay for actors. Shayne never forgot what it was like to be a starving actor being stranded out-of-town or wondering where your next meal would come from. While he was cranking out one movie after another in every possible film genre, westerns, mysteries, love stories, etc., Robert Shayne also continued to sell insurance, securities, and bonds on the side.

For all of his many performances on the silver screen, it was the small screen that finally gave Robert Shayne the fame and recognition he sought his entire life when he was added to the cast of The Adventures of Superman as Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis Police Department. The TAOS writers and producers contrived to have Clark Kent right there at police headquarters with his pal Bill Henderson going over each and every case clue by clue. This was especially true for the first two seasons of TAOS whose 52 black & white adventures were mostly ‘film noir’ classics. Surprisingly, Shayne’s Inspector Henderson did get some meatier parts in some of the color episodes such as The Talking Clue from season three where his son was kidnapped by gangsters. Even here we really don’t know if Henderson is married, divorced or widowed because both the Inspector and Clark Kent make futile romantic overtures to Noel Neill’s Lois Lane in the fourth season episode The Wedding of Superman!

Robert Shayne appeared as Inspector Henderson in over eighty of the program’s 104 episodes. Perhaps his finest performance of the dogged police inspector was in the fourth season episode Blackmail where Henderson is framed by the mob for taking a bribe. Robert Shayne gives a moving and touching performance as an honest cop fully realizing that he is about to be fired in disgrace and thinks back to the days when he was a young cop on the beat. Clark Kent is distressed to see his close friend Bill in trouble, and finds the evidence that not only clears Inspector Henderson, but lets him take the credit for rounding up these crooks preying on Metropolis!

On working with George Reeves, Robert Shayne was quoted in Grossman’s book “You know, we used to have a lot of laughs on the set because it was impossible for us actors to take this all too seriously...the situation would bring on cracks.”

The TAOS shooting schedule, especially during the last four seasons left plenty of free time for the cast, and Robert Shayne took advantage of nearly every job offer coming his way. In between westerns and crime pictures, Shayne made some outstanding science-fiction ‘B’ films like Tobor the Great (1954) for Republic and Invaders from Mars (1953) for Twentieth Century Fox! He often played U.S. Air Force generals battling gigantic invaders from outer space as in The Giant Claw (1957) for Columbia, and Kronos (1957) back at Fox. Robert Shayne would also play brilliant but often naïve scientists dabbling with tragic results in things better left alone. In The Indestructible Man (1956) he restores an executed murderer played by Lon Chaney, Jr. to life, but in The Neanderthal Man (1953) he has the title role of a modern day Dr. Jekyll who transforms himself into his pre-historic ancestor!

Robert Shayne was such a professional and disciplined actor that he was an ideal foil for slapstick comedians. Shayne made two funny comedies for his former studio Monogram, now renamed Allied Artists when he appeared with Huntz Hall and the Bowery Boys in Hot Shots (1956) and Spook Chasers (1957). Robert Shayne also co-starred in the 36^th and final Abbott & Costello film Dance with Me Henry (1956) for United Artists playing a District Attorney who is murdered at the boys’ amusement park.

Robert Shayne even made two serials including the very last one made at the industry’s Valley of the Cliffhangers Republic Studios, King of the Carnival (1955).

Robert Shayne worked steadily in films until his retirement in 1977 after completing his last film Never Con a Killer (1977) for television. He was lured out of retirement to appear on the CBS television series The Flash (1990 – 1991) playing Reggie the news vendor.

During the run of TAOS, America was going through the era of Senator Joe McCarthy and the ‘Red Scare.’ Robert Shayne was falsely and unfairly fingered as a member of the ‘Communist Party, USA’ by a former friend and fellow actor. Federal agents appeared on the ‘TAOS’ set and served Robert Shayne with a subpoena for an appearance before a Congressional panel. Eventually Robert Shayne was completely exonerated by the federal investigation.

Robert Shayne’s daughter Stephanie Shayne wrote in an e-mail, “He was served a subpoena by Federal agents on the studio lot. He appeared in executive session, before the House Committee on Un-American Activities or (HUAC) on a separate date. Twice actually, a year or two apart. ….Dad speaks in the transcripts of one of his appearances about the public way he was served on the studio lot, and how he lost a day or two of work to make his appearance before the committee. He even asks them to reimburse him for lost wages.” Kellogg’s who was the main sponsor of ‘TAOS’, demanded that Robert Shayne be fired from the series. The show’s producer Robert Maxwell stood up to Kellogg’s and refused point-blank to fire Robert Shayne! Mr. Maxwell’s courageous position was backed up by George Reeves, Noel Neill, John Hamilton, and Jack Larson, and therefore Kellogg’s blinked, saying that Shayne could remain on the show, but he would not appear in any of the cast commercials that they financed for their cereals.

During the same time that TAOS first hit the television air waves, there was another comedy-variety series starring a famous comedian that was one of the most popular shows in the history of that era. On that show the comedian did a series of domestic skits, and the actress playing the wife of the comedian had her name turn up in the ‘Red Channels’ rag that named left-leaning actors. When confronted by the network brass and sponsors, the comedian dropped the actress like a hot potato, and hired another actress. The career of the blackballed actress never recovered.

Stephanie Shayne writes “Studio lots are like small towns. The news that Dad had been served went through the lot like fire …it was very public and very damaging (to his career).” This was happening all over Hollywood and New York in the entertainment industry, and Robert Shayne never forgot the loyalty and support he received from George Reeves, the cast, and producer Robert Maxwell of ‘TAOS’.

Robert Shayne was frequently interviewed over the decades about his work as Inspector Henderson on The Adventures of Superman and along with his family was always kind to the many die-hard fans of the series. Robert Shayne always spoke with great admiration and kindness of his friend George, and the happy memories they shared together. For the record, Robert Shayne, a man who spent his entire life seeking the truth, was always dubious that his friend George Reeves had committed suicide. It would take another sleuth with the name of Henderson to follow that trail of that Hollywood mystery.

Robert Shayne made 103 feature films and two serials in his long film career. One of his credits is an obscure Hong Kong production that doesn’t even appear on his IMDb.com movie credits. The film is The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1971) starring James Mason, Burgess Meredith, and Jeff Bridges. Robert Shayne plays an ambitious U.S. Senator grilling the director of the CIA, played by the Oscar-winning actor Broderick Crawford. Crawford was a brilliant powerhouse actor who could blow away the presence of even the biggest stars of Hollywood in his films. But in four very intense and dramatic scenes, Robert Shayne goes toe to toe with Broderick Crawford, and holds his own with his more famous co-star! Their performances make this otherwise shoddy and unintentionally funny film worth watching.

Robert Shayne died on November 29, 1992 at the age of 92. This gifted and outstanding actor was consistently under-rated by the Hollywood film industry, but not by his family, friends, and his many fans.

We proudly induct the last member of the regular cast of The Adventures of Superman Robert Shayne into The George Reeves Hall of Fame. Somewhere, somehow, some way, George Reeves and John Hamilton are congratulating their old friend and co-worker.

Thanks Lou Koza for the help with the photos!!

If you have anyone you would like to nominate,