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Robert 'Bobby' Hyatt

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Filmmaker

The Resume

    (December 29, 1939-September 27, 2007)
    Born in Los Angeles, California
    Robert James Hyatt
    Popular child actor of the 1940s - 1950s
    Acted in 'High Wall,' 'When I Grow Up,' 'Carbine Williams,' 'He Ran All the Way,' 'The Basketball Fix,' 'Christmas Carol,' and 'Tomorrow is Another Day'
    Had a starring role in the short-lived ABC family sitcom, 'Pride of the Family,' as Natalie Wood's brother (1953-1954)
    Later found work as a writer/director, credits including 'Every Girl Should Have One,' 'Alien Seed,' 'Street War!' 'Lost Paradise,' 'Deadly Ransom,' 'Lies, Sex, & Rock n Roll' and 'Dead Man's Run'
    Formerly vice-president of acquisitions/production for The Director's Cut Video-On-Demand cable movie channel
    Best known for portraying Thomas Marrow Jr. in 'Miracle on 34th Street' (1947) and Gavroche in 'Les Miserables' (1952)

Why he might be annoying:

    He directed a low budget 'Alien Seed' sci-fi film starring Erik Estrada.
    He was picked out of a line of babies at MGM, by Cary Grant, at six months old.
    He claimed to have had difficulty concentrating on his school work on the set of 'Miracle on 34th Street,' because Edmund Gwenn frequently would pass by and often stop to do a funny jig for the kids.
    His role as a semi-regular co-player of Natalie Wood's over the years made him one of the few males Wood had any regular contact with. He claimed that she liked to quiz him about 'male genitalia' when they were teenagers, in turn sharing secrets about her body with him.
    One specific incident he recalled, on the set of 'Pride of the Family,' was Wood showing him a 'blow-up bra' she had recently purchased backstage. He coaxed her to 'blow em' up real big' and to walk around the set with it on (her mother went ballistic).
    He struggled to find work as a director/writer in the early 1990s, prompting him to seek work abroad (for instance scrounging up a documentary in New Zealand called 'The Maori Queen').
    The circumstances of his death are murky and unclear (his IMDb profile cites a form of Cancer as the cause, but the 'Resting Places' registry lists him as having died 'from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head - one version does not necessarily negate the other).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He avoided 'the curse of the child star' by focusing on having a career behind the lens and on the page.
    His 'my daddy told me so' line about Santa Clause's existence in the courtroom scene for 'Miracle' wasn't in the original script. Hyatt suggested it to director George Seaton.
    He took a break from acting in 1959 to pursue a stint in the US Army.
    He was forbidden from having any contact with Natalie by her mother, on the set of 'Miracle.'
    He maintained a close relationship with Natalie throughout her life, and the two would hook up sporadically.
    He tipped Natalie off about the part of Judy in 'Rebel Without a Cause,' which is credited with rejuvenating her career (and he also joined her mother in advising her not to enter into the ill-fated union with Robert Wagner).
    His made first feature film, in 1978, 'Every Girl Should Have One,' starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, Robert Alda, and Alice Faye.
    The success of the film won him a deal with 20th Century Fox to develop a movie-of-the-week entitled, 'Super 8.'
    He spent ten years traveling the US and Europe on concert tours as an artist manager and music publisher.
    He became the first American director to make an all-Vietnamese cast and Vietnamese-language, full-length feature, 'Lost Paradise.'
    He recalled working with Edmund Gwenn as follows: 'He was a really nice guy, always happy [and] always smiling, he just had this little twinkle in his eyes...'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 27 Votes: 37.04% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 32 Votes: 53.12% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying