Robert Wagner was born in Detroit, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was seven. Always wanting to be an actor, he held a variety of jobs (including one as a caddy for Clark Gable while pursuing his goal, but it was while dining with his parents at a restaurant in Beverly Hils that he was "discovered" by a talent scout. He had a bit part in The Happy Years but it was a small part as a crippled soldier in the Susan Hayward film With a Song in My Heart that got him attention. His fresh, all-American looks landed him a contract with 20th Century-Fox, which put him in a succession of undemanding roles in Technicolor pictures where his looks were more important than his talent (Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, Prince Valiant), but he did manage to show that he was indeed an actor of talent in several showy roles in smaller pictures (A Kiss Before Dying, Between Heaven and Hell). As he became one of Fox's rising young stars, the studio, as was customary back then, set him up with a host of nubile young actresses, among them Debbie Reynolds. While the pairing didn't lead to any romance, it did lead to a lifelong friendship. In 1956 Wagner, then 26, found the love of his life, 18-year-old actress Natalie Wood. They married on December 28 1957, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hollywood trumpeted their marriage as the most "glittering union of the 20th century". Robert (RJ to his friends) and Natalie Wood quickly moved into a $150,000 mansion on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. He and Natalie Wood were deeply in love and appeared to be the perfect couple, but were actually living on the edge and were strapped for cash. RJ was being overshadowed by new male leads like Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. Natalie Wood was placed on a 14-month suspension with Warner Bros. for refusing to do a movie in England.

These problems led them to divorce on April 27 1962. He took the divorce hard. Trying to escape his pain he went to Europe to make the movie The Longest Day. In Europe he met with his old friend Marion Marshall. They married in 1963 and had a daughter, Katie Wagner, but the marriage was short-lived. In 1968 he reluctantly went into television to star in It Takes a Thief (later he would say it was the right move). By 1969 he was thriving professionally, but his personal life wasn't. He was still in love with Natalie Wood and kept in touch with her. However, she had married British producer Richard Gregson and they had a daughter Natasha (later Natasha Gregson Wagner). In 1971 Natalie Wood and RJ saw each other by accident in a restaurant and suddenly the old magic was back. She divorced Richard Gregson, and RJ and Natalie Wood remarried June 16 1972, on their yacht "Splendour". In 1974 they had a daughter, Courtney Brooke. Their second marriage was full of love and happiness. They were a real family and loved raising their three daughters, Katie Wagner, Natasha Gregson Wagner and Courtney Brooke.

Wagner went on to do a succession of successful television series (Switch, Hart to Hart) and his professional and personal lives seemed to be right on track. Then on November 29 1981, his life was shattered by the news that Natalie Wood had fallen off of "Splendour" and drowned. He was devastated and inconsolable, but insisted on arranging a funeral to honor the love of his life. He spent the next ten years raising Natalie Wood's and his daughters alone. It was 1991 when he married Jill St. John. To this day he finds it difficult to talk about Natalie Wood's death.

Wagner has since revived his career with a recurring role as the eye-patch-wearing henchman Number Two to Mike Myers' sinister Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" series of spy spoofs and as the host of Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, which shows recently discovered and restored episodes of the old TV anthology series The 20th Century-Fox Hour, some of which Wagner himself had starred in.
Father of Katie Wagner (with Marion Marshall) and Courtney Brooke Wagner (with Natalie Wood). Best known as Jonathan Hart on TV's Hart to Hart Step-father of Natalie Wood's daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner Made 4 movies with wife Natalie Wood All the Fine Young Cannibals The Affair, _Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) (TV)_ and Hart to Hart. Father of the TV hostess Katie Wagner. He sued Aaron Spelling Productions for $20 million in June 2000, charging that he was cheated out of profits on the Fox series Beverly Hills, 90210. He claimed that he was entitled to profits as part of a ten- year-old settlement between producer Aaron Spelling and Fox that gave Aaron Spelling the right to produce Beverly Hills, 90210 in exchange for "Angels 88", a never-produced series in which Wagner had a stake. According to the suit, the conflict dates back to 1973 when he and his wife, Natalie Wood, made a deal with Aaron Spelling to submit ideas for pilots to ABC. One idea that the couple submitted led to the show Charlie's Angels. Following the terms of their deal, Aaron Spelling, Wagner and Natalie Wood equally shared profits from the series. In 1988 Aaron Spelling developed a new series, "Angels 88". According to the terms of their contract, Wagner was to receive 7.5% profit participation -- whether or not he rendered services. Fox committed to the series, without his knowledge, and then reneged, giving Aaron Spelling Beverly Hills, 90210 instead. Since Aaron Spelling was given Beverly Hills, 90210 in exchange for an asset in which Wagner had an interest, Wagner claimed that he is entitled to the same profit participation on Beverly Hills, 90210 as he had on "Angels 88". The suit alleges breach of contract and fraud and seeks 7.5% of gross profits from Beverly Hills, 90210 as well as damages of not less than $20 million. Due to the publication of a memoir by Lana Wood on her sister's life, Wagner refuses to speak and/or communicate with his late wife's family, after it was implied in the book that Wagner probably played a role in Natalie Wood's tragic drowning off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981. In spring 2000, a Vanity Fair cover shoot featuring all actresses playing Bond girls in every Bond film was broken up after an encounter by Lana Wood and Wagner's present-day wife Jill St. John got into a major argument on the set. Wagner's present-day wife, Jill St. John, starred in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever which also starred his late-wife's real-life sister, Lana Wood. After being submerged at one point in an industrial strength foaming agent during the bathtub scene in The Pink Panther, went blind for four weeks. The studio wanted Wagner replaced, but director Blake Edwards stuck by him and he finished the picture. Is portrayed by Michael Weatherly in The Mystery of Natalie Wood When he arrived in Hollywood, he was mentored by the older, established actor Clifton Webb, even living at Webb's home at the beginning of his movie career.