Full Name Robert Chambers Name Bob Random | Years active 1960s-1980s Occupation Actor | |
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Movies and TV shows The Other Side of the Wind, Village of the Giants, The Iron Horse, A Time for Dying, Scalplock Similar People Bert I Gordon, Budd Boetticher, Orson Welles, Sydney Pollack, James Goldstone | ||
Robert Random (born January 29, 1945) usually billed as Bob Random, is a Canadian-born character actor who appeared in both movies and television from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s.
Contents
Television and film roles
Random's television work tended to be in dramatic roles, in venerable programs like Dr. Kildare, Mr. Novak, Ben Casey, and Lassie, or Western series, such as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, The Iron Horse, and The Legend of Jesse James (which starred Christopher Jones). He did occasional comedies, including The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gidget (in a recurring role as Gidget's friend Mark).
His best-remembered movie role is as Rick, one of Beau Bridges and Joy Harmon's co-villains in the 1965 teen comedy Village of the Giants. He also appeared in This Property Is Condemned (1966) and ...tick...tick...tick... (1970). Mosby's Marauders (1967), in which he played Private Lomax, was later repeated on The Wonderful World of Disney under the title Willie and the Yank.
His last appearances were in an episode of Get Christie Love, and as the biker Reaper in the second and third The Danger Zone movies, taking over from Robert Canada, who played the character in the original.
Random played John Dale in Orson Welles's unfinished 1972 film The Other Side of the Wind, appearing alongside John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich and Dennis Hopper.
Personal
Random was divorced from Ida Random, who received an Academy Award nomination in 1988 for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration on Rain Man. Random currently resides near Qualicum Beach, British Columbia.