05/31/06 — Actor Robert Sterling dies at 88

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Actor Robert Sterling dies at 88

By Karinne Young
Published in News on May 31, 2006 1:50 PM

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Robert Sterling, the handsome star of 1940s movies who appeared with his wife Anne Jeffreys in the television series "Topper," has died at his Brentwood home. He was 88.

Sterling died Tuesday of natural causes following a decade-long battle with shingles, said his son, Jeffrey.

Although he appeared in dozens of movies, Sterling was best known for the 1953-1956 TV series "Topper," based on the Thorne Smith novel, and the 1937 film starring Cary Grant and Constance Bennett.

Sterling and Jeffreys, a Wayne County native, played George and Marion Kirby, a fun-loving couple who were killed in an accident but returned as ghosts to haunt the new occupant of their home, a banker named Cosmo Topper.