Robert Ginnaven

Robert Addison Ginnaven Jr. (January 1, 1937 – February 17, 2008) was an American film and television actor.

Ginnaven was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1937. He was the only child born to Pauline (née Boals), and Robert Addison Ginnaven, Sr. His mother worked for many years as a medical secretary in Downtown Memphis, and his father, who served in the United States Navy during World War II, worked for years as a deliveryman for Wonder Bread, also in Memphis.

Ginnaven graduated from Southside High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Memphis. Ginnaven was initially introduced to the theatre by a classmate who suggested he try out for a college production.

After completing his degree, Ginnaven moved to New York City, where he studied under Lee Strasberg. where Ginnaven was employed by KATV as a weatherman and talk show host. Ginnaven was later employed in the advertising industry, where he worked for the rest of his life.^[1]

Ginnaven moved back to Memphis in 1958, where he met his first wife, Ila Verne (née Crews) at an open-call audition being held by the local PBS station. Married December 21, 1958, Bob and Ila had their first child, Robert Addison Ginnaven III, on October 29, 1959. Not long after their son was born, Bob and Ila moved from Memphis to Little Rock, Arkansas. On May 15, 1961, their second child and only daughter, Elizabeth Leigh Ginnaven, was born. Their last child, Christopher Crews Ginnaven, was born on August 7, 1962. Ila died of complications from lung cancer on August 31, 1994. A few years later, Bob remarried Ann Vickers who was at the time the director of sales at KATV, the same TV station Ginnaven, Jr. had started at when he first moved to Little Rock. The marriage lasted a number of years, but ultimately ended in an amicable divorce. Not long after Ginnaven, Jr. was divorced, he began to date a friend by the name of Jeanne Crews. Ginnaven, Jr. and Jeanne Ginnaven (née Crews) were soon married, and remained married until he died on February 17, 2008.

Ginnaven married Jeanne Tyler Ginnaven; they lived in Little Rock, Arkansas.