Robert Shayne was born Robert Shaen Dawe on October 4th, 1900 in Yonkers, NY and worked as a journalist before choosing an acting career. In 1927 as a young man in Birmingham, Alabama, Bob was working in the advertising department in a women's ready-to-wear store, when the director of the Jefferson Players, a stock company, asked him if he would like a part in one of his plays, Iz Zat So. Bob took the role and received good notices. After one matinee when he went back to the store, he found a foreclosure sign on the door. He decided to stay in the play until the season closed.

After being in other plays in different states, Bob headed for New York to find his future on the stage. After failing to find another acting role, Bob took a job with a theatrical agent, pasting press clippings in a press book. When he got bored with that, he moved on to selling stocks and bonds on Wall Street. He got lucky and played the role of a policeman on Broadway in a play called, The Rap, and that started his acting career. Later, he was seen in two Theatre Guild hits, Biography, and Both Your Houses. From 1928 to 1942 he made his living as a stage actor in New York. He played a lawyer in one drama titled The Night of January Sixteenth.

His real break did not occur until 1938, when he portrayed "Renny" on a 39 week tour with Ethel Barrymore in Whiteoaks, a play he was especially proud of being a part of. More roles followed. A play by Ayn Rand which received fine notices and another role in Claudia with Phyllis Thaxter. Also employing Mr. Shayne's talents were such plays as Yellow Jack, Five Alarm Waltz, Order Please, Beverly Hills and The Land is Bright.

Then one day when Bob was co starring in Without Love, a play starring Katharine Hepburn, he was spotted by an agent from Warner Brothers in Hollywood. It was a rainy day in New York when the agent offered Bob a chance to go to Hollywood, which he accepted quickly. When he got off the plane in Hollywood, he looked around at all the sunshine and thought, "Oh boy, this is for me", and he never left California.

To baby-boomers, Bob is most remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Bill Henderson in the tv series, "The Adventures of Superman" starring George Reeves. Bob remembered that there were a lot of laughs on the set because it was impossible for any of the actors to take their roles too seriously. All that he knew about the Inspector was that he was once married and had a son. Bob lectured in colleges saying that "acting should be intimate and the actor should know and understand his character in order to render it believable to himself and his audience. That was what was missing from Superman".