Robert Beecher

Robert Beecher was a character actor best known for his roles in the films Barton Fink, Dick Tracy and Bugsy. Beecher played a referee in Fink (with John Turturro and John Goodman), a criminal in Tracy (with Warren Beatty, Madonna and Al Pacino) and a director in Bugsy (with Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Harvey Keitel).

He also appeared in the films Shoot Out at Big Sag, with Walter Brennan and Leif Erickson and Red Rock West, with Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle.

Additionally, Beecher frequently appeared on television, including roles on the series Space Patrol, The Untouchables, Rawhide, Welcome Back, Kotter, Fantasy Island, Hill Street Blues, CHiPs, St. Elsewhere, Murder, She Wrote, Simon & Simon, Cagney & Lacey, The Young and the Restless, Superior Court and Quantum Leap.

After graduating from high school and serving in the Air Force, he enrolled in the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts. In 1948, he and 24 other actors founded the Orchard Gables Repertory Theatre Company. He also had his own workshop, Stage 13 Productions, and in the early 1970s, he began teaching at the Screen Actors Guild Conservatory, where he stayed on for more than 30 years.

In 1956, he opened the Horseshoe Stage Theatre in Hollywood. He purchased a lot on Melrose Avenue two years prior and built the 91-seat venue, opening the theater with a production of The Member of the Wedding. He continued to star in, direct and produce plays and acting workshops at the venue until he sold it in 1978. It is now known as the Zephyr Theatre.

Beecher died February 12, 2016, in Burbank, California. He was 91.