Robert C. Hilliard (actor)
American actor (1857-1927)
Robert Cochran Hilliard (May 28, 1857 - June 6, 1927) was an American stage actor. A popular matinee idol of his day, he was nicknamed Handsome Bob.
Career
Hilliard was born in New York City in 1857, and got involved in acting through amateur productions while he was working as a clerk on Wall Street. His professional debut was in the play False Shame in Brooklyn in 1886. He acted in many plays until retiring in 1918. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre states that "although he was a star for many years, most of the plays in which he acted were popular but ephemeral works." He also made frequent appearance in vaudeville between plays.
As his nickname "Handsome Bob" might indicate, Hilliard was known for his attractive looks and for being very well-dressed in the fashions of the day. By 1888, Hilliard was set up as a foil by the press to Evander Berry Wall as to who should be called "King of the Dudes".
Death
Hilliard died of heart disease at his home on West 58th Street in Manhattan on June 6, 1927, and was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. He was also suffering from diabetes.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16030609. VIAF identifies the subject as 23488566. The Library of Congress control number is n82102579. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1927, 1886 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert C. Hilliard (actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.