
Robert Marion Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director. Gist was reared around the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring another boy in a fistfight, Gist instead ended up at Chicago's Hull House, a settlement house originally established by social worker Jane Addams. There he first became interested in acting.
Work in Chicago radio was followed by stage acting roles in Chicago and on Broadway (in the long-running Harvey with Josephine Hull).[citation needed] While acting in Harvey, he made his motion picture debut in 20th Century-Fox's Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Gist was also seen on Broadway in director Charles Laughton's The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954) with Henry Fonda and John Hodiak.
While shooting Operation Petticoat (1959), Gist told director Blake Edwards that he was interested in directing. Edwards later hired Gist to helm episodes of the TV series Peter Gunn. Gist also directed episodes of TV shows Naked City, The Twilight Zone, Route 66 and many others.

Miracle on 34th Street
1947 · as Window Dresser (uncredited)

Strangers on a Train
1951 · as Det. Leslie Hennessey

Operation Petticoat
1959 · as Lieutenant Watson

The Band Wagon
1953 · as Hal

Al Capone
1959 · as Dion O'Banion

Jack the Giant Killer
1962 · as Scottish Captain

The FBI Story
1959 · as Medicine Salesman

Angel Face
1953 · as Miller

D-Day the Sixth of June
1956 · as Dan Stenick

The Jackpot
1950 · as Pete Spooner

A Dangerous Profession
1949 · as Roy Collins, aka Max Gibney

The Stratton Story
1949 · as Earnie

The Naked and the Dead
1958 · as Red

Scene of the Crime
1949 · as P.J. Pontiac

One Minute to Zero
1952 · as Maj. Carter

I Was a Shoplifter
1950 · as Barkie Neff

Blueprint for Robbery
1961 · as Chips McGann

Jigsaw
1949 · as Tommy Quigley