Robert Stack's deep baritone and stern composure could make authority persuasive or monotonous. We value him most in comedy, where his refusal to soften those habits makes the foolishness around him funnier.
Fi1m perspective
Robert Stack keeps attending to the emergency in Airplane (1980) as though sensible behaviour remains an option. His Captain Rex Kramer brings a deep baritone and a seriousness that the foolish dialogue does nothing to disturb. We laughed because he continued to sound capable when the words gave us so little reason to trust anyone's judgement. There is no invitation to admire his straight face. The joke needs him to get on with the job.
To Be or Not to Be (1942) is a reminder that comedy was part of his work long before it became self-parody. He plays Lieutenant Stanislav Sobinski for Ernst Lubitsch, though Jack Benny and Carole Lombard provide the comic assurance we prize in that film. Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind (1956) casts him as Kyle Hadley, a self-destructive man.
Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1959–1963) made that sternness central to his reputation. As an incorruptible Treasury agent, Stack's terse delivery gave authority a persuasive simplicity. There was a cost: the subsequent typecasting in no-nonsense roles could make him seem one-note. We find that firmness most useful when a film puts it under strain, rather than merely relying on the voice to establish who is in charge.
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker understand this in Airplane. Peter Graves and Leslie Nielsen share Stack's seriousness, while Lloyd Bridges seems less securely in command. Some of the wordplay is painfully corny, and even this cast cannot make every joke work. Yet Stack's contribution is substantial precisely because he declines to compete for the laugh. Start with Kramer, then try Kyle Hadley before deciding that Stack could only play the man who had everything under control.
Biography
Robert Stack (born Charles Langford Modini Stack) was an American actor and television host. He appeared in more than 40 feature films and gained prominence for his role as Eliot Ness in the television series The Untouchables (1959–1963), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1960.
Stack received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Written on the Wind (1956). Later in his career he took on comedic roles that satirised his established screen persona, including Captain Rex Kramer in Airplane! (1980) and the voice of Ultra Magnus in The Transformers: The Movie (1986). He also hosted the true-crime series Unsolved Mysteries from 1987 to 2002.
