Robert Preston

When he began appearing in films, the studio ordered Meservey to stop using his actual family name. As Robert Preston, by which name he would be known for his entire professional career, he appeared in many Hollywood films, predominantly Westerns, but is probably best remembered for his performance as "Professor" Harold Hill in Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man (1962). Read Less

Rosemary Harris played his wife, Minerva. The Preston character died in the ninth of the thirteen episodes of the program. Other co-stars were Ben Murphy, Lance Kerwin, Brett Cullen, and James Van Patten. In the story line, the Chisholms lost their land in Virginia by fraud and left for California to begin a new life.

Although he was not known for his singing voice, Preston appeared in several other stage and film musicals, notably Mame (1974) and Victor Victoria (1982), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His last role in a theatrical film was in The Last Starfighter (1984), in which he portrayed an interstellar con man/military recruiter called "Centauri"; he said that he based his approach to the character of Centauri on that which he had taken to Professor Harold Hill. Read Less