In 1977, I was ten years old and the
new motorcycle cop series CHiPs, an instant hit, got my attention.
True, I was enamored of darkly handsome Erik Estrada (as millions of
others were), but in a surprising turn of events, I also found myself
intrigued by Estrada's boss on the show, played by Robert Pine.
Robert Pine was born with the rather
unwieldy family name of Granville Whitelaw Pine on July, 10th,
1941 in New York, New York. He was raised in Scarsdale, NY with a
father who was a patent attorney. The family spent summers in
Nantucket, Massachusetts where, in time, Pine worked on a summer
musical and drew the attention of playwright Robert Anderson, who
suggested he try a career in acting. Pine, however, had plans to
attend med school after college and become a doctor.
After having suffered through the name
Granville (though pals called him “Buzz'), he was happy to redub
himself Robert Pine and embark on a career as a working actor. He
began to study with esteemed teacher Jeff Corey while being assigned
parts by the studio. First up was a role in an episode of Kraft
Suspense Theatre in 1964, alongside James Whitmore and Tommy Sands. (As a hyper, teen troublemaker, he indulges in what can politely be described as overacting, though some might call it mugging!)
Pine worked several times on The
Virginian from 1965 on, usually as troubled young men. He proceeded
to parts on such series as Wagon Train, Broadside, Convoy and Run for
Your Life. He got to work opposite Robert Taylor on Death Valley Days as seen here, playing a shanghaied sailor. The Audie Murphy western Gunpoint (1966) was his big
screen debut, in which he played a member of an outlaw gang.
That same year, he was one of the young male
leads in a teen rock 'n roll flick called Out of Sight. That's him in the hilarious pale gold jumpsuit!
He rounded out a
trio of movies that year with Munster, Go Home!, in which he affected
an English accent.
1967 brought more work his way
including the WWII drama The Young Warriors, starring James Drury. (He's shown below as a bespectacled soldier.) He
also worked on the series Lost in Space, Death Valley Days and even
The Lucy Show, one in which Lucille Ball's character heads back to
high school in order to get her diploma.(Lucy strongly considered using him as one of the many kids in 1968's Yours, Mine and Ours, but unfortunately he was already too mature.)
Journey to Shiloh (1968) was a Civil
War drama that featured many young actors who would later gain fame
including James Caan, Michael Sarrazin, Don Stroud, Jan-Michael
Vincent and Harrison Ford (who I always felt a young Pine resembled more than a little bit.) (Someone needed to inform him that
covering half his face with a hat – far left – was no way to gain
fame!) Then there was The Counterfeit Killer (1968) with Jack Lord
and Shirley Knight.
More appearances on hit TV westerns
were in store including Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Bonanza (as fellow guest Will Geer's brooding son) and The
High Chapparal. Balancing these out were guest spots on Mannix, the
little-known spy show called The Silent Force, Dan August, Medical
Center, Cannon and Mod Squad. Robert Pine AND Larry Casey in the same episode of Bonanza? I'll have a scoop of each, please!
He costarred in the 1973 TV movie
Incident on a Dark Street alongside James Olson and David Canary. It
was a failed series pilot about fledgling Federal prosecutors and
guest-starred William Shatner. That same year, he played one of
several cavalrymen in the James Garner-Vera Miles family western One
Little Indian. (Morgan Woodward, who had worked with Pine in Gunpoint
and on Gunsmoke, was also on board. He would later pop up in a 1980
episode of CHiPs.)
A variety of work was still coming his
way, though little of it important. He worked on shows as diverse as
Love, American Style and The F.B.I. There was a role in the Patrick
Wayne back-to-nature flick The Bears and I and a bit role in Day of
the Locust. Having worked quite a bit for TV producer Quinn Martin,
he signed on for the awkwardly-titled Bert D'Angelo/Superstar series
in 1976, but the whole experience was unpleasant for him and the
show, which starred Paul Sorvino, was cancelled after a dozen
installments.
1977 would prove to be a key year in
Pine's career. Not only was he guest-starring on several hot shows
like Barnaby Jones, Charlie's Angels and even The Bob Newhart Show,
but he took a role in a very low-budget thriller that has endured
thanks to the born-again stardom of its leading lady, Joan Collins.
Yes, Pine was in Empire of the Ants, a hilariously bad movie about
giant ants taking over. His jerky, cowardly character got quite a come-uppance
when he was bitten in the crotch by one of the enlarged creatures!
Besides all this, however, 1977 was
also the year that he signed on to costar on CHiPs. The series
featured California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops Erik Estrada and
Larry Wilcox, but Pine was cast as their capable, wry, often no-nonsense
Sergeant.
The series was rife with
problems,mostly concerning the egos of the two principle stars and their own
personal conflict at times, but Pine always stayed firmly grounded in
the middle, refusing to take sides in their spats or to inflame any
of the issues with his opinions one way or the other. (This easy
working relationship is part of what has assured him a steady,
fifty-year career in the biz!)
Eventually, Wilcox left the show
altogether and was replaced by, first Tom Reilly and then Bruce
Penhall. There was also a stretch when a striking Estrada required
his brief replacement with Bruce Jenner. (Despite imdb.com's records,
Estrada did not appear in EVERY CHiPs episode.) Through all the
turmoil, Pine was a reliable constant.
During CHiPs, he would sometimes pop up on games shows like Beat the Clock or Match Game, allowing us the chance to see him in a more frivolous, less buttoned-up light. (He was on Match Game the time a very haughty then-unknown Kirstie Alley won over $5,000, a nice chunk of change at the time.)
On several occasions, Pine's real-life
wife (since 1969) Gwynne Gilford appeared as his character's wife. An
actress in her own right, she had costarred on a couple of failed
sitcoms (shown here) along with quite a few other TV gigs. One was
The Waverly Wonders (1978) opposite Joe Namath and the other was A
New Kind of Family (1979-1980) alongside Eileen Brennan. Once the
couple's two children were born, she phased out of acting and became
a psychotherapist.
Pine, however, kept plugging along.
When CHiPs was cancelled in 1983, he continued to guest star on
programs like Hotel, Knight Rider, Murder, She Wrote, Dynasty,
Magnum, P.I. and others. He'd also played a devious cavalryman in
1979's The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again while working on CHiPs.
He'd also done the obligatory episode of The Love Boat, portraying a priest.
His steady employment continued all
through the late-'80s and early-'90s with him popping up on
practically every notable series of the era. He's shown here with
Georgia Engel, with whom he costarred in the 1985 TV-movie Papa Was a
Preacher.
Easily one of the most bizarre blips on his resume was the 1987 TV-movie Hoover vs The Kennedys: The Second Civil War, in which he was (horrendously mis)cast as President John F. Kennedy!! Nicholas Campbell played his brother Bobby Kennedy and I include this promo photo a) as proof that it happened and b) because he's sorta cute in his robe and I like the long-ish wig on him! (This pinnacle of miscasting also had the gall to present Marilyn Monroe as portrayed by The Fall Guy's Heather Thomas!! By way of what, Christina Applegate...?)
He's seen here with a young Jason Wiles during a 1993 episode of CBS Schoolbreak Special called "Big Boys Don't Cry," concerning allegations of child molestation.
He had a small role in Independence Day
(1996) as a White House advisor and entered the sci-fi cult arena when he guest-starred on
Star Trek: Voyager as an ambassador that same year. In 1998, most of
the cast of CHiPs was gathered together for a reunion movie (a
nostalgic trend that was happening for many long gone shows.) At this
point, Pine was no longer a sergeant, but the highway patrol
commissioner. CHiPs '99 was intended to be revived into a running
series again, with two younger cops at the forefront, but that didn't
materialize.
Occasional film appearances were
balanced with TV work including But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), the
2001 TV series Black Scorpion, the 2001 Brian Bosworth movie Mach 2
(shown here) and the 2005 TV-movie Landslide (shown below.)
Then there was a recurring role on The
Bold and the Beautiful and a part on another of the Star Trek series,
this time as a Vulcan on Star Trek: Enterprise.
There was also a new arena to explore:
the stage, with roles in “Viagra Falls” with '80s starlet Teresa
Ganzel and “The Doctor's Dilemma” (shown here in 2011.)
As a
diverse, multifaceted performer, Robert Pine frequently pops up in
unexpected places. For example, he provided the voice for the bishop in
the recent Disney spectacle Frozen (2013) and is still very active
today at age seventy-three.
Of course, he has a new claim to fame
now as the father of hot young cinematic leading man Christopher
Pine! Robert and Gwynne first had daughter Katie before little Chris
came along in 1980.
(It is occasionally misconstrued that Chris
appeared on CHiPs in his mother's belly. While that was actually a
plan, logistics pushed the filming back to where Chris was born and
then Gwynne had to wear a pillow for the episode in question!) Katie
went into the realm of psychology like her mother, while Chris
followed in his father's footsteps.
Christopher, however, earned a
bachelor's degree in English from the University of California,
Berkeley before he ever pursued or accepted an on-screen acting role.
Graduating in 2002, he landed his first role in 2003 on ER, with
others in quick succession. A serious break came with The Princess
Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement (2004.) He and his father even got to
work together twice, in 2005's Confession and later in 2010's Small Town
Saturday Night though the best was yet to come.
After several other movies and the
occasional TV appearance, Chris Pine was chosen to play the young
Captain Kirk in the 2009 re-boot Star Trek. The wildly popular movie
was soon a burgeoning franchise and he shot to fame. In 2014, he was
the star of another reboot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Not content to restrict himself to
action films, he recently proved himself a worthy singer in the big
screen adaptation of Into the Woods (2014) as Cinderella's Prince,
swaggeringly roaming through the trees in search of his lady love
while belting out the audience favorite “Agony” (which, sadly,
had its reprise from Act 2 cut in this adaptation.)
So while I always adored Robert Pine
and still do, his handsome and talented offspring has now come along
to carry the acting baton forward. Fresh-scrubbed and suited-up or
scruffy and rumpled, he's one of my few contemporary crushes!
