Robert Easton, American actor and dialect coach, died he was 81.

Robert Easton was an American actor whose career in film and television spans more than 60 years died he was 81. His mastery of English dialect earned him the epithet "The Man of a Thousand Voices". For decades he was a leading Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.^[1]

^{(November 23, 1930 – December 16, 2011)} 

Easton was born Robert Easton Burke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Easton (née Kloes) and John Edward Burke.^[2]

Radio

Beginning in 1945, he was heard on radio's Quiz Kids. He portrayed Magnus Proudfoot on radio's Gunsmoke and also appeared in other radio programs, including Fibber McGee and Molly, The Fred Allen Show, The Halls of Ivy, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, William Shakespeare—A Portrait in Sound and The Zero Hour.

Films

On film, one of his earliest appearances was in The Red Badge of Courage. He appeared in the feature film, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as Sparks (a variation on Stingray's "Phones") and was also the character "Handown" a gunner crew-member of a B-17 of WW2 in the film The War Lover which starred Steve McQueen and a very young Michael Crawford. One of his more unusual voices was that of a Klingon judge for the movie, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country. He appeared in Gods and Generals (2003) as John Janney, and he recently starred in Spiritual Warriors (2007). He appeared in the 1987 baseball film Long Gone as Cletis Ramey.

Television

On television, he made many guest appearances and also provided the voices of "Phones" and "X-2-0" in Gerry Anderson's Stingray.
During the late 1940s through the 1960s, he was mostly known for his portrayal of a slow-talking, blankfaced hicks (as in The Munsters episode, "All-Star Munster" as Moose Mallory).

Other

He was the voice of Thomas Jefferson in The American Adventure at Disney's Epcot in Florida.


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