Later in his career, Stack was known for his deadpan comedy roles that lampooned his dramatic on-screen persona, most notably as Captain Rex Kramer in Airplane!

He was born Charles Langford Modini Stack in Los Angeles, California,[4] but his first name, selected by his mother, was changed to Robert by his father.

When he collaborated with Mark Evans on his autobiography, Straight Shooting, he included a picture of himself and his mother that he captioned "Me and my best girl".

His maternal grandfather, opera singer Charles Wood, studied voice in Italy and performed there under the name "Carlo Modini."

His brother and he won the International Outboard Motor Championships, in Venice, Italy, and at age 16, he became a member of the All-American Skeet Team.

[11] Stack took drama courses at Bridgewater State University, a mid-sized liberal-arts school located 25 miles southeast of Boston.

When Stack visited the lot of Universal Studios at age 20, producer Joe Pasternak offered him an opportunity to enter the business.

[13][14] Stack won critical acclaim for his next role, The Mortal Storm (1940) starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart, and directed by Frank Borzage at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Back at Universal, Stack was in Pasternak's A Little Bit of Heaven (1940), starring Gloria Jean, who was that studio's back-up for Deanna Durbin.

[15] United Artists borrowed him to play a Polish Air Force pilot in To Be or Not to Be (1942), alongside Jack Benny and Carole Lombard.

Stack admitted he was terrified going into this role, but he credited Lombard, whom he had known personally for several years, with giving him many tips on acting and with being his mentor.

[17][18] Stack resumed his career after the war with roles in such films as Fighter Squadron (1948) at Warner Bros. with Edmond O'Brien, playing a pilot; A Date with Judy (1948) at MGM, with Wallace Beery and Elizabeth Taylor.

He had an excellent role in Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), a passion project of Budd Boetticher for John Wayne's company.

[19] Stack supported Mickey Rooney in My Outlaw Brother (1951) and had the lead in the adventure epic Bwana Devil (1952), considered the first color, American 3-D feature film.

Stack felt that the primary reason he lost to Quinn was that 20th Century Fox, which had lent him to Universal-International, organized block voting against him to prevent one of their contract players from winning an Academy Award while working at another studio.

The show portrayed the ongoing battle between gangsters and a special squad of federal agents in prohibition-era Chicago.

[24] Stack starred in a new drama series, rotating the lead with Tony Franciosa and Gene Barry in the lavish The Name of the Game (1968–1971).

(1980), Big Trouble (1986), Plain Clothes (1988), Caddyshack II (1988), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), and BASEketball (1998).

He thought very highly of the interactive nature of the show, saying that it created a "symbiotic" relationship between viewer and program, and that the hotline was a great crime-solving tool.

He underwent radiation therapy for prostate cancer in October 2002, and died of heart failure at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles,[29] on May 14, 2003, at the age of 84.