[5] Roberts gained stage experience from an early age, joking that not only had he played "Little Willie" in East Lynne but also "Little Eva" in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
He was accordingly chosen by Edward Peple, to create the lead role of When Allan Hamilton, general manager of the Brough Company, secured The Prince Chap for Australia, he also contracted Roberts, and the play opened at the Palace Theatre, Melbourne.
He made a few appearances after the 1914–18 war, but chiefly for J. C. Williamson's — as the lawyer disguised as a waiter in Pollock's The Sign on the Door at the Criterion with Maud Hannaford and Frank Harvey, and as Pelham Franklin in Cosmo Hamilton's Scandal.
When the disease became acute he left his wife at her home "San Francisco" on Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay, for professional care at a private hospital in Woollahra, where he died a little before midday on 5 June 1924.
Notice of his death was announced by Moore in a telegram to the Greenroom Club,[6] Theatre Royal Buildings, Bourke Street, Melbourne.