Father of actors Robert Walker Jr. and Michael Walker.
He was born in Salt Lake City the night the "Big Fire" swept through the city. His father was the city editor of the "Deseret News"; and after a weary night of reporting on the blaze, he finally had the chance to put in a call to the hospital to learn of his son's birth. The next morning when he told his three other sons about their new brother, they were unimpressed. They had been up all night watching the fire, and another brother seemed much less interesting.
His performance as Bruno Anthony in Strangers on a Train (1951) is ranked #86 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
In December of 1948, he made national news when he fled from a Topeka, Kansas, psychiatric clinic and smashed up the local police station after being arrested for public drunkenness.
Interred at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, UT.
Married Jennifer Jones (then Phyllis Isley), on the one-year anniversary of the day they met. They separated on 7 November 1943, and she filed for divorce on 21 April 1945.
Was the original choice for the male lead in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). It eventually went to Tom Drake, despite protests from Judy Garland.