Robert Hudson Walker (October 13 1918 - August 28 1951) was an American actor.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Zella (McQuarrie) and Horace Walker, he was the youngest of four sons. He developed an interest in acting which led to his maternal aunt Hortense (McQuarrie) Odlum (the president of Bonwit Teller) to offer to pay for his enrollment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1937.

It was at the academy that Walker met fellow aspiring actress Phyllis Isley (better known as Jennifer Jones). After a brief courtship the two were married on January 2 1939 and moved to Hollywood to find work in films. Their prospects proved to be meager however and they soon returned to New York where Walker found work in radio and Phyllis gave birth to two sons in quick succession, actor Robert Walker, Jr., born April 15 1940, and Michael Walker, born March 13 1941. Phyllis then returned to auditioning where her luck changed when she was discovered by producer David O. Selznick who changed her name to Jennifer Jones and groomed her for stardom. During their initial meetings Selznick was highly attracted to Jones and they quietly began an affair. She eventually landed the plum role of Bernadette Soubirous in the Twentieth Century Fox production The Song of Bernadette (1943). Many speculate that her film success was the result of her affair with Selznick who managed every aspect of her life and furthered her career.

The couple returned to Hollywood and Selznick's connections helped Walker secure a contract with MGM where he started work on the war drama Bataan (1943). Walker's charming demeanor and boyish good looks caught on with audiences and he worked steadily playing "boy-next-door" roles in films such as See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945). He also appeared in Selznick's Since You Went Away (1944) in which he and his wife gave poignant performances as doomed young lovers. By that time Selznick and Jones' affair was common knowledge and the filming of loves scenes was torturous as Selznick insisted that Walker perform take after take of each love scene with Jones.

Walker and Jones were divorced after the end of filming and although he continued to work steadily in Hollywood, he was distraught by the divorce and prone to drinking and emotional outbursts. In 1946 he starred in 'Till the Clouds Roll By, where he played the lead as the song writer Jerome Kern in a role that required him to age from a young man to an old man. Walker starred as composer Johannes Brahms in Song of Love (1947), which co-starred Katharine Hepburn and Paul Henreid.

He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1949 but following his release from the Menninger Clinic he was hired by director Alfred Hitchcock for Strangers on a Train (1951). His performance as the evil yet oddly sympathetic Bruno Anthony was highly lauded and considered to be his finest role.

His emotional problems largely behind him, and his career in an upswing following an acclaimed performance, Walker spent the summer with his sons, and was considering the possibility of remarrying. (He had married Barbara Ford the daughter of director John Ford in 1948 but the marriage was annulled within six weeks).

While filming My Son John in 1952 , Walker died suddenly after being administered an injection of sodium amytal by two doctors who had appeared at his house. He was 32 years old. The actor was buried at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah. Unused footage from Strangers on a Train in addition to a body double were used to complete My Son John.

The circumstances surrounding his death have never been fully explained.

He possessed the same special brand of rebel/misfit sensitivity and charm that made superstars out of John Garfield (I) and (later) James Dean (I) and Montgomery Clift. In the war-torn 1940s, Robert Walker represented MGM's fresh, instinctive breed of up-and-coming talent. His boyish good looks combined with an attractive vulnerability came across the screen with such beauty, power and naturalness. He went quite far in his short life; however, the many tortured souls he played so brilliantly closely mirrored the actor himself and the demons that haunted his own being wasted no time in taking him down a self-destructive path for which there was no return. He was born Robert Hudson Walker, the youngest of four sons, in Salt Lake City in 1918 (some references list 1914). His father, Horace Walker, was a news editor for the local paper. His parents separated while he was quite young and the anxiety and depression built up over this loss marred his early school years, which were marked by acts of belligerent aggression and temper tantrums, resulting in his being expelled from school several times. To control his behavioral problems, a positive activity was sought that could help him develop confidence and on which he could focus his energies. It came in the form of acting. Following a lead in a school play at the San Diego Army and Navy Academy at Carlsbad-by-the-Sea, California, Walker entered an acting contest at the Pasadena Playhouse and won a top performance prize. A well-to-do aunt paid for his tuition at the American Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA) in 1938, and he was on his way. Things started off quite promisingly. While there he met fellow student Phyllis Isley who went on to play Elizabeth Barrett Browning to his Robert Browning (I) in a production of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (Phyllis was later renamed Jennifer Jones (I)). The couple fell in love and both quit the academy in order to save money and marry, but they found little work other than some small parts at a Greenwich Village theater. They eventually found a radio job together in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and married on January 2, 1939, honeymooning in Hollywood in order to secure more acting parts. Other than some radio jobs and bit parts in films, the move didn't pan out. The couple returned to New York and started a family. Sons Robert Walker Jr. (born 1940) and Michael Walker (I) (born 1941) would both become actors in their own right. Following their births Jennifer returned to auditioning and caught the eye of producer David O. Selznick, who took an immediate interest in her and signed her to a contract. Selznick was also instrumental in securing a contract for Robert over at MGM. Stardom would be theirs as a result of this Selznick association, but at quite a cost to Robert. Robert gained immediate attention in his first important MGM role as a shy, ill-fated sailor in Bataan (1943), but was miscast as a scientist in the Greer Garson biopic Madame Curie (1943). Hollywood notice would come in the form of his sweet, sad-sack title role in the service comedy See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), the story of a cub reporter who is drafted into the army. The role brought out all the touching, fascinating qualities of Robert. In the meantime, Jennifer became so caught up in her obsessive relationship with mentor Selznick that she broke off with Robert. The actor was devastated and abruptly turned to heavy drinking. He would never completely recover from this loss. The first of many skirmishes with the law came about when he was arrested on a hit-and-run charge. In another self-destructive act, he agreed to appear with his estranged wife in the Selznick film Since You Went Away (1944). Although he suffered great anguish during the filming, the movie was praised by critics. He played a young soldier who dies before the end of the last reel, and audiences identified with him in both his troubled on- and off-screen roles. Another vivid part that showed off Walker's star quality came opposite the equally troubled Judy Garland (I) in Clock, The (1945), a simple romantic story of two lost souls, a soldier and a girl, who accidentally meet while he is on furlough. The tumultuous state of Walker's not-so-private life began to seriously affect his screen career in the late 1940s. In the musical Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) he played composer Jerome Kern but was eclipsed by the musical numbers and flurry of special guests. He was third billed behind Katharine Hepburn and Paul Henreid, who portrayed pianist Clara Schumann and mentally unstable composer Robert Schumann, in Song of Love (1947). Robert played famed composer and friend Johannes Brahms. Following a lead part as a love-struck window dresser in One Touch of Venus (1948), which focused more on Ava Gardner's creative vision of loveliness, he impulsively married Barbara Ford, the daughter of famed director John Ford (I). The marriage was quickly annulled within a few weeks after more erratic outbursts surfaced, including arrests for drunkenness. By this time Jennifer had married Selznick, and this pushed Robert over the brink. He was committed to a sanatorium and not released until the middle of 1949. After his recovery and release, he was back to work with top roles in the comedy Please Believe Me (1950) opposite Deborah Kerr and the western Vengeance Valley (1951) starring Burt Lancaster. Robert happened to be loaned out to Warner Bros. when he was handed the most memorable film role of his career, that of the charming psychopath who attempts to trade murder favors with Farley Granger in Alfred Hitchcock (I)'s classic thriller Strangers on a Train (1951). Hailed by the critics, Robert was mesmerizing in the part and part of the Hollywood elite once again. He had begun filming Paramount's My Son John (1952), which included Helen Hayes (I), Van Heflin and Dean Jagger in the cast, when tragedy occurred. Robert had just finished principal photography and was making himself available for reshoots for director Leo McCarey when, on the night of August 28, 1951, his housekeeper found him in an extremely agitated state. Failing to calm him down, she panicked and called his psychiatrist, who, upon arrival, administered a dose of sodium amytal, a sedative, which he had taken in the past. Unfortunately, he had been drinking as well and suffered an acute allergic reaction to the drug. Robert stopped breathing, and all efforts to resuscitate him failed. His death cut short the career of a man destined to become one of the most charismatic actors in film. As for life imitating art, perhaps Robert's agonies are what brought out the magnificence of his acting.