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A Background of Robert Quarry

    First I would like to give credit to "The Robert Quarry Fan Club" formed in 1974 by Ron Janick (In which I was Art Director for at 16 years old!) and the recent "Psychotronic Video" magazine Number 33 for the following information and insight of the talented Mr. Robert Quarry.

    American International Pictures signed Robert Quarry to a long-term contract not only because he was so convincing in the title role of "Count Yorga, Vampire" and "the Return of Count Yorga" but because he is an actor with personality and, in fact, slated to inherit the AIP throne of horror from Vincent Price in 1974.

    Quarry admits to an I.Q. of 168, but when someone talks with him you think it must be higher. He finished school at age 14 and was making $750 a week at the age of 17 and became a Life Master at playing Bridge while overcoming a cancer situation.

    California born, he spent his formative years in Santa Rosa far from Hollywood, but close enough to permit him to win a scholarship at the Pasadena Playhouse and be obtained by Alfred Hitchcock before he could even enroll. He made his film debut in Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" at the age of 15, followed by continuous work in films at Universal Studios and on radio.

    Early in World War II Quarry was one of the busiest juvenile actors on radio with regular appearances on the Lux Show and as a regular on the "Dr. Christian" program.

    Acting had to be relegated to a lesser place in Quarry's life when he reached 18 and joined the Army Combat Engineers. For reasons that could only pertain to this unusual person, Quarry had to undergo basic training three times.

    Somehow this young Californian managed to form his own theatrical troupe while in the Army and he acted in and helped produce a hit production, "The Hasty Heart". President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the viewing of the play.

    After the war, the never-happy-unless-acting Quarry charged into the new medium of television in New York City. He debuted on the Broadway Stage in the Katherine Hepburn company of "As You Like It". Next, for director Margaret Webster, "The Taming of the Shrew", "Richard III" with Maurice Evans, then "Gramercy Ghost" with Veronica Lake, on Broadway and on tour followed. Then back on television he played on "Studio One", "Philco" and "Robert Montgomery Presents". In one of the "Robert Montgomery Presents" shows he played brother to the late James Dean.

    Louis B. Mayer signed Robert Quarry as a potential movie star, but the management of MGM suddenly changed and Robert Quarry sat around for two years "undiscovered". He did continue his "most beneficial" friendship with Katherine Hepburn during that period.

    20th Century Fox contracted Robert Quarry, but he was bounced out of Clark Gable's "Soldier of Fortune" and Jennifer Jones' "Good Morning, Miss Dove" because he looked too young. He did manage to hang in there for "A Kiss Before Dying".

    Quarry attended the Actors Lab in Hollywood regularly no matter what his other professional obligations were. He believed that the experience he gained there was a valuable one, as assuredly as valuable as any he derived elsewhere.