Movie Actor. Born Raymond Anthony Glenn on Oct. 18, 1898, he grew up in Frankfort, Ky., and earned a degree from the University of Kentucky in civil engineering. He and a friend, Walter Featherstone, drove out to California in the early 1920s and received parts as extras in the movies. He soon learned tests were being conducted for someone to star in a series of silent westerns. Jesse James Goldburg interviewed Glenn, and the actor recalled, “So I signed a contract with him. I got $100 a week the first year, $200 a week the second, the $400 the third, $750 the fourth and $1,000 for the fifth. It was practically tax-free then.” The name Bob Custer already had been chosen for him. “When I signed with FBO, Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of JFK, owned the company,” he said. “They got a cowboy, Cecil Kellogg, to show me some of the tricks of riding and roping and to mount like a cowboy does.” He starred in 53 movies as Custer and three non-westerns, including one under his real name. Among his leading ladies were Sally Rand, who later became a famous fan dancer; Academy Award nominee Jean Arthur; Peggy Montgomery, Florence Lee, Peggy Udell, Eugenia Gilbert and Blanche Mahaffey. In the 1927 film, “Return of Boston Blackie,” one of the cast members was Peaches Browning, who in 1926 as age 15, married a 51-year-old sugar daddy. He worked under director Breezy Eason in his first film, “Trigger Fingers,” in 1924. He recalled an incident from the film: “Eason shot a cigarette out of my mouth while I was getting a light from a candle stuck in a bottleneck. He accomplished what he wanted to do. He shot the end of the cigarette off and snuffed out the candlelight at the same time. But it hit some of the melted candle wax and threw it up into my left eye. The hot wax stung. I thought it was glass, so I grabbed my eye and ducked back. Breezy said the take came out perfect.” He also worked with other directors, including Raymond Bradbury, the father of actor Bob Steele; and J.P. McGowan. “I never really went in for the real fancy costumes,” he said. “My boots were specially made by a Mexican fellow. He made them skin-tight. Sometimes you had to soak them in water, leave them on your feet and walk around in them to break them in. Another fellow made my pants. They were tight-fitting around the legs and usually made of Bedford cords.” On Nov. 23, 1926, Glenn married Ann Cudahy, related to the wealthy meatpacker. They had one son, Raymond J., but the marriage didn’t last. While it did, the young couple pooled their considerable wealth and built a 15-room mansion. He also had a 1926 Lincoln with a special paint job. Then came the Great Depression, and he, like so many others, lost a fortune and acting parts dried up. And like so many other silent-screen performers, he didn’t make the transition well to sound. He had had no voice training and had trouble discarding the exaggerated gestures required during the silent era. He made a few talkies, including one, “Riders of the North,” as a Mountie. He also starred in a sound serial for Mascot Studios called “Law of the Wild” in 1934 in which Rin Tin Tin Jr. and Rex, the King of Wild Horses, received top billing. “It was tiring,” he recalled. “For one thing, I had to ride a horse bareback practically all the way through it. I got sore, mostly in the thighs and calves with charley horses. They had to have someone massaging me between almost every scene.” He then returned to engineering, starting a construction business in the San Fernando Valley. During World War II he worked in the shipyards in the Los Angeles area in the accounting and timekeeping departments. After the war he became street superintendent in Redondo Beach and building inspector for the cities of Newport Beach and El Segundo. He died of a heart attack on Dec. 28, 1974 while walking his dog in his Redondo Beach neighborhood. He is buried under his real name. (bio by: Ron Coons)  Family links:  Spouse:  Mildred Irene Boughers Glenn (1925 – 2002)* *Calculated relationship