Early life
During his high school years, Roberts sang in local USO shows. He flunked out of Georgia Tech then served for two years in the United States Marine Corps. He attended the University of Maryland but also flunked out there. He began his acting career in off-Broadway and Broadway theatre in New York City. He then worked with the Arena Stage Company in Washington, D.C.

In 1958, Roberts guest-starred as Captain Jacques Chavez on the NBC adventure series Northwest Passage based on the life of Major Robert Rogers in the French and Indian War. He appeared with fellow guest star Fay Spain in the 1958 episode "Pick up the Gun" of the western series Tombstone Territory.

In 1959, he co-starred in a western genre film called Ride Lonesome.

Personal life

Roberts married three times. His first marriage was in 1951 to Vera Mowry, a professor at Washington State University, with whom he had his only child (Jonathan Christopher Roberts); they later divorced. He married Judith Anna LeBreque on October 15, 1962; they divorced in 1971. His last marriage was to Kara Knack, whom he married in 1972; they divorced in 1996.

Roberts' only child, Jonathan, died in a motorcycle accident in 1989 at age 38.