It’s hard to imagine a Baltimore man who cobbled together a fuller life than Doug Roberts — actor of stage and screen, director and producer, dinner theater impresario, acting coach, voice coach, voice-over actor, film and theater critic on television, restaurant critic on radio, baseball booster, husband, father, raconteur, friend and mentor to many.
Roberts died on Monday at 86, having lived the life he always wanted, going back to his Kentucky childhood. He got the bug for acting in third grade, while appearing in a school play. Later, after high school and theater studies at the University of Kentucky, he embarked on what turned out to be a seven-decade career as a professional actor.
His family estimates that Doug Roberts appeared in some 5,000 television shows, TV commercials, videos and movies. He was a hustler, always looking for the next job and nailing parts, often small roles, in the films of John Waters and the television projects of Barry Levinson and David Simon.
“He was a really good character actor and a valued cast member,” says Waters, who directed Roberts in five of his movies, starting with Hairspray in 1988. In fact, the actor and director appeared in a Hairspray scene together — Roberts as the father of a “troubled teen,” Penny Pingleton, and Waters as the quack psychiatrist, Dr. Frederickson, who tries to hypnotize her with a pinwheel.
In Waters’ “Serial Mom,” starring Kathleen Turner as homicidal housewife Beverly Sutphin, Roberts played Ralph Sterner, a middle-aged, middle class guy whose gross devouring of a roast chicken triggers Mrs. Sutphin’s delusions and bloodlust; she ends up killing Sterner by dropping an air conditioner on his head.
“Doug was very good at what he did and he loved it,” says Waters. “I’m sorry to see him go.”
Throughout the years, Roberts managed to get parts in films that put him on sets with stars Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds, Kevin Kline, Sissy Spacek, Anne Bancroft and Will Smith.
David DeBoy, another Baltimore-based actor, became one of Roberts’ many friends and benefited from his advice. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when numerous films and TV shows were produced here, DeBoy marveled at the way Roberts managed to get parts despite a common bias among casting directors.
“Because Hollywood directors didn’t trust local talent, Doug was amazing in the number of movie roles he grabbed,” says DeBoy. “I did not do so well in those days. So, I took him to lunch to ask him what he did in movie auditions to get the roles. And he said, ‘I don’t do anything. I don’t raise my voice, I don’t do any facial expressions, I don’t do any body movement. I just sit there and say the words and leave.’ He explained that big-time film directors are terrified of casting actors who overact. They don’t want small roles to take attention away from the stars. So Doug gave them nothin’. That was a valuable piece of information that served me well, [though] I still have trouble givin’ ’em nothin.’”
According to his family, Roberts started his professional acting career in New York City. He appeared in Circle In The Square Theatre on Broadway and worked as a page at NBC.
But dinner theaters were a thing back then, so Roberts joined the movement, making a career move that gave him experience in all facets of the business — production, promotion, directing and acting. He came to Maryland to open the Oregon Ridge Dinner Theater and he later owned the Bolton Hill Dinner Theater. He also worked at Limestone Valley Dinner Theater.
In the 1980s, Roberts moved into theater reporting and movie criticism for WBAL-TV and, later, restaurant reviewing as The Beltway Gourmet with Dave Durian on WBAL-AM.
For 22 years, Roberts produced and narrated “Baltimore Baseball Minutes” on radio with Michael Gibbons, at the time executive director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. Gibbons says Roberts’s valuable advice on public relations and promotion garnered the museum two segments on NBC’s Today Show.
Doug Roberts gave plenty of advice to plenty of people, including me, when we both produced weekly feature segments for WBAL-TV. He took sincere interest in young people and their career ambitions. He warned Linda Foy, a newscaster for several years on WBAL-AM, about the pitfalls and risks of the freelancer’s life.
“He reminded me that I had a good, stable career in radio at the number one news/talk station,” Foy says. “He told me how rare that was for someone my age — I was in my twenties — and encouraged me to stay. I eventually moved to L. A. where I realized a dream I’d had since college. Still, I recognized that his advice was his way of protecting me from the unknown and I always appreciated that.”
DeBoy, who gave us the “Crabs For Christmas” song, now a Bawlmer classic, worked with Roberts in the 1980s on a sketch comedy show called “Crabs,” produced by Maryland Public Television. Around that time, DeBoy was getting into directing and sought Roberts’ advice.
“I said, ‘Tell me how to be a good director,’” DeBoy recalls. “Doug answered by asking me, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen in your play?’ I was stumped, and he said: ‘The actors could just… stop. Stop because they don’t remember what’s next.’ His method of directing was to make sure the actors were very familiar with the run of the show before they got down to specifics of timing and intention. That information served me very well.”
In the 1990s, Roberts helped former professional athletes become sports broadcasters. He also conducted seminars and lectured at Baltimore universities.
Robert was a great teller of tales and could hold court for hours in any setting, in a coffee shop or at Camden Yards.
On top of all that he did, while cobbling together his career in acting and broadcasting, he took time to encourage others, especially younger people. That’s as much his legacy as his turn as Penny Pingleton’s overwrought dad or Serial Mom’s air-conditioned victim.
Doug Roberts is survived by his wife of 58 years, Tara Russo Roberts; three children, Hilary Roberts-King, Amy McLoughlin and Brooke Roberts; and eight grandchildren, Merriwether King, Harper King, Jane McLoughlin, Molly McLoughlin, Beatrice McLoughlin, Caroline Roberts, Grace Anne Roberts and Tucker Roberts. Arrangements are being made by Ruck Funeral Home in Towson.
Dan Rodricks’ column appears weekly in Fishbowl. He can be reached at djrodricks@gmail.com or via danrodricks.com.
I always liked seeing Doug popping up here and there. He will be missed.