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Dayle Lymoine Robertson (July 14, 1923 – February 26, 2013) was an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series Tales of Wells Fargo and railroad owner Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse. He often was presented as a deceptively thoughtful and modest Western hero. From 1968 to 1970, Robertson was the fourth and final host of the anthology series Death Valley Days. Described by Time magazine in 1959 as "probably the best horseman on television", for most of his career, Robertson played in Western films and television shows—well over 60 titles in all.
During this time Columbia Pictures offered to test Robertson for the lead in their film version of Golden Boy, but Robertson turned down the trip to Hollywood for a screen test. He did not want to leave the ponies he was training, nor his home, and the role went to William Holden.
Robertson made his film debut in an uncredited role as a policeman in The Boy with Green Hair (1948). Two other uncredited appearances led to featured roles in two Randolph Scott Westerns: Fighting Man of the Plains (1949), where he played Jesse James, and The Cariboo Trail (1950).
Popular acclaim to Robertson's brief roles led him to be signed to a seven-year contract to 20th Century Fox. Robertson's first role for Fox was a support part in a Western, Two Flags West (1951). He had a support part in the musical Call Me Mister (1951). He soon advanced to leading roles in films such as Take Care of My Little Girl (1951), where he played Jeanne Crain's love interest, and Golden Girl (1951), where he supported Mitzi Gaynor.
Robertson was never very cooperative with the press, even shunning the powerful columnist Louella Parsons.Marshall, Peter Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square Thomas Nelson Inc, July 17, 2002 As a result, he won the press' Sour Apple Award for three years running. But then, commented Robertson, "that dang Sinatra had to hit some photographer in the nose and stop me from getting my fourth."
He was one of several Fox names in O. Henry's Full House (1952) and was Betty Grable's love interest in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953).
RKO borrowed him for Devil's Canyon (1953) with Virginia Mayo and Son of Sinbad, filmed in 1953 but not released for two more years.
He returned to Fox for City of Bad Men (1953) with Crain; The Silver Whip (1954) with Rory Calhoun and Robert Wagner; and The Gambler from Natchez (1954) with Debra Paget.
Robertson did A Day of Fury (1956) for Universal and Dakota Incident (1956) for Republic, then traveled to Britain for High Terrace (1956).
Robertson also did the narration for Tales of Wells Fargo through which he often presented his own commentary on matters of law, morality, and common sense. He was unique among his television contemporaries, stating that he hated the gun he was forced to carry, but saw it as a necessary evil, a "tool of the trade", and kept practicing.
In its cover story on television Westerns, published March 30, 1959, Time reported Robertson was 6 feet tall, weighed 180 pounds, and measured 42–34–34. He sometimes made use of his physique in "beefcake" scenes, such as one in 1952's Return of the Texan where he is seen bare-chested and sweaty, repairing a fence.
In 1960, Robertson guest-starred as himself in NBC's The Ford Show, starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1962, he similarly appeared and sang a perfect rendition of "High Noon" on the short-lived Western comedy and variety series The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show.
Robertson filmed a television pilot; about Diamond Jim Brady that was not picked up as a series.
Robertson created United Screen Arts in 1965p. 34: Billboard, August 21, 1965. which released two of his films, The Man from Button Willow (1965, animated) that he did the voice for and The One Eyed Soldiers (1966) which he starred in.
In the 1966–67 season, Robertson starred in Scalplock another television pilot released as a movie that became Iron Horse, in which his character wins an incomplete railroad line in a poker game and then decides to manage the company.
In 1968, he succeeded Robert Taylor as the host of Death Valley Days, a role formerly held by Stanley Andrews and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The series would come to its end, after 19 years on the air, with Robertson's 26 episodes as host. In rebroadcasts, Death Valley Days (often known as Trails West at the time), featured Ray Milland in the role of revised host.
Robertson guest-starred on the November 17, 1969, episode of The Dean Martin Show.
Robertson guest-starred as himself in the episode "Little Orphan Airplane" of The Six Million Dollar Man in 1974.
He portrayed legendary FBI agent Melvin Purvis in two made-for-television movies (1974) and The Kansas City Massacre (1975).
In 1981, Robertson was in the original starring cast of Dynasty, playing Walter Lankershim, a character who disappeared after the first season.
In 1983, Robertson made Big John, another television pilot, where he played a Georgia sheriff who becomes a New York Police Department detective.p. 30: Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937–2012, McFarland, February 26, 2013. From 1987 to 1988, he starred as the title character the detective series J.J. Starbuck. Robertson also played Frank Crutcher in five episodes of the TV series Dallas during the 1982–83 season.
In December 1993 and January 1994, Robertson appeared in two episodes of Harts of the West in the role of Zeke Terrell. Full cast and crew of Harts of the West at the IMDb During an appearance on The Tonight Show, Robertson said he was of Cherokee ancestry. He joked, "I am the tribe's West Coast distributor."
Robertson played a central part in a two-part episode of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury. He was not credited in either appearance because he took issue with the show's protocol of naming all guest stars alphabetically with no exception. When the show's producers would not waver on this subject, he asked not to be credited.
He received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is also in the Hall of Great Western Performers and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
In 1999, Robertson won the award for film and television from the American Cowboy Culture Association in Lubbock, Texas.
During the 27th Annual Texas Trail of Fame Awards held October 24, 2024, Robertson was awarded a bronze star on the walkway located in the Stockyards at Fort Worth, Texas.
In the last few years before his death, Robertson hosted a radio program called Little Known Facts, which was broadcast on 400 radio stations.
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