Dale Robertson was a genuine cowboy who became a television cowboy, which sounds like a publicity invention and was not. He grew up around horses in Oklahoma, was twice wounded and decorated in the Second World War, and then spent two decades as one of the most familiar faces of the American television Western.
Quick Bio / At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Dayle Lymoine Robertson |
| Date of Birth | July 14, 1923 |
| Birthplace | Harrah, Oklahoma, United States |
| Military Service | US Army, Second World War; wounded twice and decorated |
| Signature Role | Jim Hardie in Tales of Wells Fargo, NBC, 1957–1962 |
| Other Series | Iron Horse; Death Valley Days; Dynasty |
| Death Valley Days | Fourth and final host, 1968–1970 |
| Died | Late February 2013, in La Jolla, California, aged 89 |
| Cause of Death | Lung cancer and pneumonia |
| Known For | Riding his own horses and doing his own riding work |
Oklahoma and the War
Dayle Lymoine Robertson was born in Harrah, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1923, and grew up working with horses — a background that later meant he needed no doubling for riding sequences, unusual among Western leads.
He served in the United States Army during the Second World War, was wounded twice in combat, and was decorated for his service. He entered acting afterwards, reportedly on the strength of a photograph taken while he was still in uniform.
Film Before Television
Robertson spent the late 1940s and 1950s under contract in Hollywood, appearing in a steady run of Westerns and adventure pictures. He never became a major film star, and the medium that suited him arrived a decade later.
Tales of Wells Fargo
Jim Hardie
From 1957 to 1962, Robertson played Jim Hardie, a roving investigator for the Wells Fargo company, on NBC. It ran for six seasons and is the role he remained identified with for the rest of his life.
The character was a departure from the standard television gunfighter: Hardie solved problems as often by investigation as by force, in a period when the Western dominated American prime time.
Iron Horse and Death Valley Days
He followed it with Iron Horse, playing Ben Calhoun, a man who wins a partly built railroad in a poker game. From 1968 to 1970 he was the fourth and final host of the long-running anthology series Death Valley Days — a chair previously occupied by Ronald Reagan.
Later Work
Robertson worked steadily into the 1980s, including a run on Dynasty as Walter Lankershim, which introduced him to an audience with no memory of the Western era.
He eventually retired to a ranch, which for once was not a press-release detail — horses had been the constant of his life since childhood.
Death
Robertson was being treated for pneumonia at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California, when he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He died days later, in late February 2013, at the age of 89. His death was attributed to lung cancer and pneumonia.
Why He Lasted
The television Western produced dozens of interchangeable leading men. Robertson lasted because the authenticity was real: the horsemanship, the Oklahoma accent he never sanded off, and a war record he rarely discussed.
He is now a fixture of American Western television history, and one of the last of the generation who came to the genre having actually lived some of it.
More classic Hollywood profiles: Holly Ann Heston and Goldie Hawn.
