Toby Robins

Toby Robins (March 13, 1931 – March 21, 1986) was a Canadian actress of film, stage, and television.

Biography Career Robins starred in hundreds of radio and stage productions in Canada from the late 1940s through the 1960s, working with such performers as Jane Mallett, Barry Morse, John Drainie, Ruth Springford, and James Doohan, among others. She appeared in a number of television and film roles beginning in the mid-1950s, and hosted the first-ever CBC Television series, The Big Revue, in 1952. In Toronto, she played in repertory with Lorne Greene, Mavor Moore, and Don Harron. At the Crest Theatre in Toronto, she played the leading parts in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Dream Girl, and many others.

Robins became a popular television personality as an original member of the cast of the long-running CBC television series Front Page Challenge in 1957, remaining with the program until 1961. Originally hosted by Alex Barris and later Fred Davis, Front Page Challenge was a current events series disguised as a panel-style game show in a similar format to the American What's My Line?. Panellists had to guess the news story or person behind a news story by asking questions of the guest; after the game portion, the guest was then interviewed informally by the panel.

Although Robins was initially criticized for asking simple and sometimes unintelligent questions, she soon found her journalistic sea legs, and before long was holding her own alongside the more experienced journalists, including her co-panellists Gordon Sinclair and Pierre Berton. She left the series in a salary dispute in 1961 and was replaced by future senator Betty Kennedy (who remained with the show until its demise in the 1990s). Robins returned to the show from time to time as a guest panellist.

In 1964, Robins relocated to London, and she appeared in a number of film and television productions, such as The Saint ("When Spring Is Sprung") and Space: 1999 (the two-parter "The Bringers of Wonder", which was later re-issued as the television film Destination Moonbase Alpha). She appeared in an episode of Minder entitled "The Willesden Suite", broadcast in February 1984.

On London's West End stage, Robins appeared in such dramas as The Relapse, The Latent Heterosexual, The Flip Side, and The Aspern Papers.

Death On 21 March 1986, Toby Robins died from breast cancer. It is the first dedicated breast cancer research centre in the United Kingdom, and directly linked to one of the most renowned cancer facilities in the world, the Royal Marsden Hospital.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1950 Parking on This Side The Girl 1952 The Big Revue Co-host 1965 Game for Three Losers Frances Challinor 1967 The Naked Runner Ruth 1968 Department S Selina Trenton Episode: “The Man In The Elegant Room”1971 The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder Sadie Episode: "The Duke"1971 Friends Mrs. Gardner 1972 The Protectors Madame Rue Episode: "Ceremony for the Dead"1974 Paul and Michelle Jane 1976 Spy Story Helen Schlegel 1979 Space: 1999 Diana Morris Two-part Episode: "The Bringers of Wonder, Part One" & "The Bringers of Wonder, Part Two"1979 Hazell Jean Curzon Episode: "Hazell Gets the Part"1979 Licensed to Love and Kill Scarlet Star 1981 For Your Eyes Only Iona Havelock 1983 Princess Daisy Eleanour Kavanaugh 1984 Scandalous Pamella Reynolds