Rex Robbins

Rex McNicol Robbins was an American character actor of stage and screen. He played the Narrator/Mysterious Man in the first national tour of Into the Woods. Robbins appeared opposite Angela Lansbury in the 1974 Broadway revival of Gypsy. He made his Broadway debut in 1963 as the doctor in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and subsequently went on to play roles in over 30 plays and films. He also starred with John Lithgow in several British plays, including The Changing Room (1973) and Comedians (1976) and was directed by Lithgow in Boy Meets Girl (1976) based on the 1938 film of the same name. He replaced David Ogden Stiers in the long-running Doug Henning musical The Magic Show. In 1972, he played the role of Roger Sherman in the film version of the musical 1776. Off-Broadway, he appeared in Urban Blight at Manhattan Theatre Club, A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room at Playwrights Horizons and Henry IV, Part I at the Public Theater. His last stage appearance was as Mr. Brown in the musical adaption of James Joyce's The Dead in 2000. He is most remembered for portraying an openly gay bartender in Shaft. His last film was a brief appearance in The Royal Tenenbaums. Robbins was born in Pierre, South Dakota, to Lucy Geraldine (McNichol), who worked in journalism, and Clarence Edward Robbins, a doctor. He was an alumnus of Yale University and was married with three children. Robbins died of a stroke on September 23, 2003, at age 68.