The New York City-born, Pittsburgh-raised Robert Joseph Sully showed brief leading man potential in the early WWII years but alas came up short in the end. Born on November 20, 1928 to Reginald Sully of Union Carbide Corp., Robert started at the bottom rung to learn his father's business. Accepted to Duquesne University, he eventually transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in engineering and finance. Following graduation, he became a technical sales rep for Union Carbide.
Unable to be drafted to due medical ailments, Robert instead moved to California and found work at Lockheed building airplanes and pipelines. Tall, dark and good-looking, he was offered a film lead following a simple "letter of introduction" but turned it down fearing his lack of experience. Instead he signed with MGM and started in unbilled roles. Bobbysoxers took notice of him in the featured role of an astronomer in the William Powell starrer Le corps céleste (1944), which was followed by his best remembered role as Lucille Bremer's beau in Le chant du Missouri (1944). When his career failed to catch on with these two roles, MGM dropped him.
Paramount picked him up and offered him small but poignant roles in Les caprices de Suzanne (1945), You Came Along (1945) and especially Le Poids d'un mensonge (1945) as a romantic interest to Jennifer Jones. Again, more roles failed to materialize and Sully headed off to Broadway where he appeared in "Single People" (1945), which was short-lived.
Leaving show business altogether, he opened Sully Engineering plant until 1949. Returning to college, received his Ph.D and became a top=notch architect in the Southern California area.
Marrried three times, Sully died of natural causes on May 15, 2007, at age 88. in Santa Barbara.
