The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc. |
1937 1939 |
Robert/Bob Terry is a mystery. In a very brief Hollywood career that ran from 1935 - 1940, he freelanced in about forty films - there were four serials and most of the remainder were westerns.
Over half of those forty are oaters with six cowboy heroes: Terry did six with Tim McCoy; six with Tex Ritter; three with Buck Jones; three with Ken Maynard; a pair with Jack Randall; and five of the James Newill Renfrew of the Royal Mounted adventures. And there was one each with Tom Tyler, Bob Steele, Jack Luden and Rex Bell. In many of these, he portrayed a gang member. He seemed to get a bit more dialog and screen time than the typical henchman.
In his early film jobs - if credited - he was either Bob Hodges or Robert Hodges. For example, he's billed as "Bob Hodges" and plays Rex Bell's brother "Billy Storm" in STORMY TRAILS (Colony, 1936). A year or so later, he essayed another brother role - now billing himself as "Bob Terry" - in Tom Tylers BROTHERS OF THE WEST (Victory, 1937).
Scuttlebutt was that he and hoofer/stuntman/actor Dave O'Brien were friends. That seems to be a reasonable assumption as nearly half of Terry's films include O'Brien in the cast. And in the 1940 census, the Hodges and Mr. and Mrs. David Barclay (Dave O'Brien and actress wife Dorothy Short) were living a block or two from each other in Los Angeles.
Circa 1940, he disappears from films.
Finding very little on an actor named Robert / Bob Terry, I shifted my searches to Bob / Robert Hodges ... and got some positive results:
Robert Theodore Hodges was born November 14, 1908 in Richmond, Staten Island, New York to Walter M. and Helen B. Hodges. According to 1936 and 1938 voter registrations, he's an actor living in Los Angeles. In the 1940 census, his wife Helen was a secretary in the movie industry and Hodges was now a car salesman. Throughout the 1940s, he goes through more job changes - he becomes Supervisor-Cal Ship, then a mill operator, then into building materials. 79 year old Robert T. Hodges passed away on May 28, 1988 and his last residence was Venice, California. However, there is no record in the California Death Index - indicating a possible error ... or more likely, he died outside of California.
Although some of the data may be incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Bob Terry: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0855953/
As mentioned above - was there a friendship between Dave O'Brien and Bob Terry? The IMDb has them together in 17 films during the years 1937 - 1940: https://www.imdb.com/search/title?at=0&roles=nm0855953,nm0639495&sort=release_date_us
Although some of the data may be incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on a Robert Terry (Robert N. Terry/Robert Northrup Terry) - not to be confused with our Robert/Bob Terry/Robert T. Hodges: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0856069/
(Courtesy of Les Adams) Left to right are Tim McCoy, Bob Terry, Dave O'Brien and bartender George Morrell in a crop from a lobby card from TEXAS WILDCATS (Victory, 1939) with McCoy as "Lightnin' Bill Carson". A no-good father and son, played by Forrest Taylor and Bob Terry, are out to get heroine Joan Barclay's ranch. Good guy Dave O'Brien portrays Joan Barclay's brother. (Courtesy of Les Adams) L-to-R are Charlie King, Tex Ritter, Bob Terry, and Lou Yaconelli (as "Earl Douglas") in Ritter's DOWN THE WYOMING TRAIL (Monogram, 1939). (Courtesy of the Robert Webb Family) Above is the cover of the pressbook for Bob Steele's SMOKY TRAILS (Metropolitan, 1939), one of eight films that Bob starred in for Harry S. Webb's Metropolitan Pictures company in 1939-1940. That's Steele mixing it up with Bob Terry at the top. Frank Larue is wearing the badge in the lower left. And Ted Adams and George Chesebro are beatin' up on Steele in the bottom right. The heroine is incorrectly listed as Joan Carmen - she's Jean Carmen and is best remembered as the rider of the paint horse in Republic's 1937 serial THE PAINTED STALLION. |
Robert T. Hodges |
We do know that our Bob / Robert Terry guy was Robert / Bob Hodges in his initial film roles.
The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) have information on Hodges. Note the move of the family - they lived in New York (1910 census); in Philadelphia (1920 census); and wind up in Los Angeles in the early 1930s. There's two common threads in the following info - a November 14, 1908 birth date in New York (highlighted below in this color), and parents named Walter M. and Helen B. Hodges (highlighted below in this color). Ancestry.com family trees have his mother's full name as Helen Bartlett Purviance. Also pay attention to the changing occupations of Robert T. Hodges in the census, voter registrations and city directories - from actor to car salesman to Supervisor-Cal Ship to mill operator to building materials, etc. His birth record has Richmond, Staten Island, New York as his birth location. But he's born in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York on his WW2 draft registration. The distance between these locations is about 8 miles.
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I did connect with Dave Hodges, the owner of a Hodges family tree on Ancestry.com. He provided a bit more on Robert T. Hodges:
Robert T. Hodges ... "was my grandfather's (Walter F. Hodges) brother. At one time I had a black and white pic of him shooting a scene (meaning a movie still). From what I can remember he had three sons and one was named David Franklin Hodges. Ancestors go back to Franklin Co., VA." |
Robert Terry / Robert N. Terry / Robert Northrup Terry |
There is another Robert Terry, actor, that turns up in the 1940 census and Burbank, California city directory. And he has a different Social Security number than the Robert Theodore Hodges above.
Although some of the data may be incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on a Robert Terry (Robert N. Terry/Robert Northrup Terry) - not to be confused with our Robert/Bob Terry/Robert T. Hodges: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0856069/ The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), and the California Death Index have information on this Robert Terry:
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There's an announcement in the July 3, 1944 issue of Broadcasting magazine which is available at the Internet Archive:
"ROBERT TERRY, former freelance actor and announcer in Hollywood, has joined the announcing staff of KXOK St. Louis." This can't be Robert T. Hodges, as voter registrations have him in California during the 1930s - 1950s. |
(From Old Corral collection) In the above lobby card and crop/blowup from LIGHTNING STRIKES WEST (Colony, 1940), Charlie King has the drop on Ken Maynard. Dick Dickinson is on the far left and Bob Terry (light colored shirt) and Reed Howes (mustache) are between Maynard and King. LIGHTNING was the last of four mediocre oaters that Maynard did for Colony Pictures. In this one, Bob Terry is on the side of the law, helping out U. S. Marshal Maynard. |