Theodore Roberts (October 8, 1861 – December 14, 1928)[1] was an American film and stage actor.
Roberts was born in San Francisco, California.[2] He was a cousin of the stage actress Florence Roberts.[citation needed] His choice of a career disappointed his mother (who wanted him to become a minister) and his father (who wanted him to learn a trade).[3]
Roberts debuted on stage at the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco in 1880.[4] He went on to act with a barnstorming troupe on the West Coast but tired of that lifestyle after several years and left acting for a time to command a schooner owned by his father.[4]
On stage in the 1890s he acted with Fanny Davenport in her play Gismonda (1894)[citation needed] and later in The Bird of Paradise (1912). His Broadway career began with We'Uns of Tennessee (1899) and ended with Believe Me Xantippe (1913).[5]
[[File:Theodore Roberts in The Ten Commandments.jpg|thumb|[[File:Signed drawing of Theodore Roberts by Manuel Rosenberg for the Cincinnati Post 1926.jpg|thumb|Signed drawing of Theodore Roberts by Manuel Rosenberg for the Cincinnati Post 1926]]Roberts as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923)]] He started his film career in the 1910s in Hollywood, and was often associated in the productions of Cecil B. DeMille.[citation needed] He portrayed Moses in the biblical prologue of DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923).[6] One of his last film appearances was as the heroine's father in The Cat's Pajamas (1926).[7]
Roberts also performed in vaudeville.[8] After the end of a marriage, he spent six months in a New York jail because he refused to pay alimony.[3]
Roberts died of uremic poisoning in Hollywood, California at age 67 and is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[1]
