New Post: Find complete obituary at the end of the Sidebars - Galleries and Information Section
Edmond William Dosch
September 19, 1926-February 17, 2025
Widower of Audrey Ann Schneider who died in airplane crash July 31, 1955, with Bob - See related information in Biography: Part One
Robert Francis
and
Hollywood’s
Star and Studio Systems
Recent Postings:
January 8, 1928-March 22, 2021
May Wynn, Bob’s co-star in two movies, was a friend, as well, and very helpful with the content of this website. Please see the SIDEBARS - GALLERIES AND INFORMATION section for additional info and photos of May Wynn/Donna Custer. Bob’s fans remember her always with warm affection.
To celebrate the anniversary of Bob’s 95th birthdate approximately three dozen new photos have been added to the Sidebars-Galleries and Information Beyond Pasadena: Photographs, Postcards, and Similar of Hollywood and Los Angeles, c. 1920s-1950s featuring places Bob probably knew growing up in the 1930s-1955.
February 26, 2025, the 95th anniversary of Robert Francis’s birth
This website honors his brief but memorable life and career.
Dead at 25 - The Life and Sad Ending® of Robert Francis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXChVK_uqjE
Contains factual errors. The Francis family did not operate a pharmacy in Pasadena. No verification of Howard Hughes teaching Bob to fly has been found.
Posted January 3, 2025
https://youtu.be/knQ-62rrqZI?si=xTd0mlXtn4DAZm5n
Bill Big Anderson’s Death Tours
Information about Bob knowing and flying with Howard Hughes has not been verified from reliable sources. Bob died during the hiatis between the first effort to film “Tribute to a Bad Man” during June 1955 and the second scheduled for August 1955. Bob was buried on Wednesday, August 3, 1955.
https://youtu.be/zn8QLysZ-n0?si=pWOOjTtDQp44alav
Photo images only
https://youtu.be/5YkK8MFsxCg?si=eHV6uzhDzdTPN-yh
Video of Bob’s Grave Site
Forest Lawn
Above YouTube items posted May 2024.
Watch "#148 Remembering Actor Robert Francis!"
on YouTube
https://youtu.be/knQ-62rrqZI?si=c-gEeUrHG9lFrmkJ
Watch "ROBERT FRANCIS TRIBUTE" on YouTube
https://youtu.be/zn8QLysZ-n0?si=ydtmPRMG-MhIybMi
Above YouTube items posted December 2024.
28 images in Films - The Long Gray Line gallery were added April 2024.
All are from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Columbia Pictures Collection. All photos were taken at West Point, N.Y., in the late winter/early spring of 1954.
Thanks to DW for locating these.
https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog?htf8=✓&f%5Bmember_of_collections_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Columbia+Pictures+stills+and+key+books&sort=title_alpha_numeric_ssort+asc&q=robert+francis+actor&search_field=all_fields
Please remember
Bob’s sister,
Lillian Jean Francis Robins
“Fran”
June 3, 1919-
September 19, 2018
See Sidebars section for information and photos of Fran and the Francis and Robins families. Without her friendship and support, this website would not exist.
Bob with his sister Fran in the kitchen of his new apartment in Hollywood. 1955