Robert J. Wilke
American actor (1914-1989)
Robert Joseph Wilke (May 18, 1914 – March 28, 1989) was an American film and television actor noted primarily for his roles as villains, mostly in Westerns.
Early years
Wilke was a native of Cincinnati. Before going into acting, he had a variety of jobs, including working in a high-dive act at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933–1934.
Career
Wilke started as a stuntman in the 1930s and his first appearance on screen was in San Francisco (1936). He soon began to acquire regular character parts, mainly as a heavy, and made his mark when, along with Lee Van Cleef and Sheb Wooley, he played one of the "three men waiting at the station" in High Noon (1952).
Westerns
Wilke appeared in many television Westerns, including seven episodes each of NBC's Laramie and CBS's Gunsmoke.
Wilke played a hired gun in The Far Country (1954) and continued to work steadily in films and television over the next 20 years. More Western credits followed in Man of the West (1958) and numerous lesser-known films.
In 1957 he played the role of the Marshall of a town named Ansara in the Wagon Train episode "The Jud Steele Story".
In 1960 Wilke appeared in The Magnificent Seven as the railroad bully, Wallace, who was quickly killed off by James Coburn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q45553. VIAF identifies the subject as 2070535. The Library of Congress control number is no97027834. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1989, 1933 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert J. Wilke” 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.