I know this is a political blog, and I've never written a diary before now. But a man I admired and spent a lot of time watching on television has passed away. He was 84 years old. He'd been ill for quite some time, making his last appearance on Turner Classic Movies channel June 2016 when he had Candice Bergen as a Guest Programmer and prior to that he appeared during 31 Days of Oscar in February of 2016. I met him a couple of times at Turner Classic Movie events and he was a gentleman and a true lover of films.
He was the original host of Turner Classic Movies which began airing classic films in 1994. He was an historian of the Oscars but began with a love of films from the time he grew up in Colfax, Washington. After graduating from college and serving in the Air Force, he started his career as an actor first in theater then in television. He was mentored by Lucille Ball, who suggested that he should write about films. Thus, his career as a reporter and film historian began. He had dabbled in television for years as a film expert but when Ted Turner had the idea to use the film library he'd purchased to start a cable television channel devoted to showing these films, he hired Robert to be the face of TCM where he remained until he became ill last year.
He felt like an old friend and knew just about everyone associated with old Hollywood. Even new Hollywood and New York personalities wanted to sit down with him and talk movies. If you're an old movie fan in the US and Canada, you knew who he was. I will miss him a lot.