Bob Milasch

Jack Hoxie's long-nosed, homely sidekick in several Universal Westerns of the 1920s, Robert Milasch (sometimes spelled Milash) had appeared on stage with the legendary James K. Hackett in The Prisoner of Zenda. According to one account, Milasch, who had begun his screen career in the peep show days of the late 1890s, later played one of the robbers in the groundbreaking The Great Train Robbery (1903) and appeared in several of Thomas A. Edison's early "talking picture" experiments. He continued in films until the early '50s -- albeit in increasingly smaller roles -- something of a longevity record. "I'm six feet, six inches tall, so all they let me play are heavies, atmosphere, and character parts," Milasch complained to a reporter in 1939. He died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi