Robert Spindola (Who’s Who at MGM, 1937) 🇺🇸

Robert Spindola has the unique distinction of entering pictures protesting.

It was his piteous wails, rather than any artful smiles, that brought him to the attention of a motion picture producer.

Due to the early death of his father, Paul Reyes Spindola, Mrs. Spindola did extra work in pictures to earn a livelihood for herself and her small son. Her screen name is Sole dad Gonzales.

One day, she received a call to report on the set. There was no one with whom she could leave her tiny son. She needed the money, and so took him along with her.

Spoils Scene

While she was before the cameras, the bewildered little fellow cried so loudly that the director had to stop “shooting.” Investigating, he saw the child, and became so intrigued with his great dark eyes and elfin face, that he ordered close-ups to be taken. And thus, Robert Spindola made his celluloid debut, and he has been in pictures ever since.

Robert is a native son of a native daughter of Los Angeles, California. His birthday is August 20. Both his mother and father were christened in the quaint little Plaza church, situated in the oldest part of the city.

His father, who died when Bobby was six months old, was a Mexican government employee in Los Angeles.

Natural Actor

Young Spindola is not only a natural actor, but an excellent student. He wins the highest marks in school. In addition, he loves music and can play the violin.

Now, upon the advice of Manuel Alvarez Maciste, noted Mexico City guitarist-tenor, he is taking voice lessons.

Bobby’s life is not without its tragedy.

In all his brief years he has never owned a BB gun, a fact over which he not infrequently brooded. His mother, who has a phobia about guns, had forbidden him to have one. And so he contented himself with his collection of lead soldiers. Into this collection has gone all his spare pennies. No candy store receives the benefits of his “squanderings.” Only the toy soldier shops.

Success In “Firefly”

To date Robert’s screen career includes roles in “Robin Hood of El Dorado,” Ramona, The Firefly, and more recently, Live, Love and Learn, with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

Of all these films, it was The Firefly which brought him his biggest applause. He sang a strange, plaintive little tune, that so captivated audiences that he is still receiving fan mail from that film. And, best of all for his own peace of mind, a fan sent him a brand new BB gun.

Robert, although already having a fan following, is himself not much of a picture fan — except where Spencer Tracy is involved. His favorite actor is Tracy, and pictures of him cover the lad’s dressing room walls.

At present, Robert lives with his mother and grandfather in an apartment near the University of California at Los Angeles. Because he cannot have a dog in the apartment, he is anxiously looking forward to the day when he can have a house with a fence around it. Right now, he is experiencing some difficulty in deciding between a Scotty and a police dog.

“Maybe I’ll have both,” he ponders.

Closest of his fellow actors is Mickey Rooney, who taught him some of the more interesting points of football. And Bobby is proving such an adept pupil, that Rooney thinks he can find him a berth as quarterback on his team.

Collection: Who’s Who at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1937)