The Tragic Role of a Lifetime: Bruno Anthony In Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train
Like Anthony Perkins to follow him(Psycho), Robert Walker was a boyish ingénue star of romantic movies and light comedies(less some WWII films) when Alfred Hitchcock decided that his aging-boy charms would be perfect to play the dapper young psychopath in Strangers on a Train (1951.)
You can find Walker in some fine films in the 40s -- principally the wonderful NYC WWII romance "The Clock" with Judy Garland. But what Hitchcock did for Walker in 1951 was to give him...immortality. Its almost 70 years later and we STILL remember Robert Walker for his villain in Strangers on a Train.
But here is the tragic part: Walker completed Strangers on a Train, realized that (a) he was in a big hit and (b) his psycho villain turn was "something for the ages" and -- (c) almost promptly died. Young! Age 32. Before he could even complete his next movie, "My Son John," which was completed by manipulating his death scene in Strangers with a stand in.
Whatever his "cutesie-pie" persona before Strangers on a Train, the real-life Robert Walker was damaged goods when Hitchcock cast him as the villain in Strangers on A Train. Walker had lost his wife, actress Jennifer Jones, to movie mogul David O. Selznick(Hitchcock's mentor/tormentor on Rebecca and Spellbound.) A second marriage to John Ford's daughter collapsed, and Walker ended up briefly institutionalized with both mental issues AND a drinking problem.
These "demons" attracted Hitchcock and perhaps found root in the troubled, nutty Bruno. Though really, Bruno is such a madman(honestly, from his very first SCENE in the movie, unlike with Perkins in Psycho) that the movie killer blots out Walker's personal troubles -- Bruno is too much of a powerhouse nutcase all on his own(and a bit coded gay, too -- Tony Perkins could have played the role in another time.)
Walker's death was unnecessary: some Hollywood "Dr. Feelgood" types held Walker down and forced a shot on him after he'd been drinking...the mix killed him.
But its funny. Whereas Tony Perkins lived on for 32 years after Psycho and had to watch as he could never match Norman Bates(not even in the Psycho sequels)..Robert Walker rather entered mortality WITH Strangers on a Train. He never lived to complete another film(though he is in one -- My Son John) and he never had to deal with "trying to live up to a role he could never beat."
I expect Walker would have traded that for more years of life, though.
PS. Though Walker passed away young at 32, we got to see "Old Robert Walker" though his lookalike son, Robert Walker Jr. , who had a short supporting careering in the 60's and early 70's and who, in interviews on a Strangers on a Train DVD showed us almost EXACTLY what his father would have looked like in old age. Pretty good, really. And Robert Walker Jr. mercifully had a much more normal and happy life than his father.