Robert R. Phillips (April 10, 1925 – November 5, 2018) was an American film and television actor.
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Life and career
Phillips was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was a self-defense instructor while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and later played football for the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. Phillips was also a police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and Illinois State Police. He was a personal bodyguard for the 31st Governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson II.
Phillips began his film and television career in the 1950s, when a film producer suggested he should become an actor, and gave him a role in a film, and the TV series Tightrope! was based on aspects of his life.
Phillips retired as a police officer after being injured while working undercover, and attended acting school in the early 1950s. Phillips was hired by studios as a minder for Lee Marvin, to prevent him getting into fights after hours. He appeared in two films with actor Richard Jaeckel: The Gun Runners (1958) and The Dirty Dozen (1967).
His other film roles included appearances in The Killers (1964) and Cat Ballou (1965), Dimension 5 (1966), Hour of the Gun (1967), Mackenna's Gold (1969), Slaughter (1972), The Slams (1973), I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973), The Dion Brothers (1974), Capone (1975, as Bugs Moran), Mitchell (1975), Mean Johnny Barrows (1975), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Walking Tall: Final Chapter (1977).
