A reserved name in a loud world
Robert Levitt Jr. occupies a quiet corner of mid-20th century American showbiz history: a man born into the glare of Broadway’s brightest lights who, by most accounts, chose privacy over publicity. His life reads like a narrow corridor off a crowded stage — present, necessary, and largely out of the audience’s view. The outline is simple and stark: born August 11, 1945; son of one of Broadway’s defining voices, Ethel Merman; husband (at one point) of actress Barbara Colby; a life that intersected with fame but never mirrored it.
Basic information
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name searched | Robert Levitt Jr. |
| Date of birth | August 11, 1945 |
| Place of birth | Manhattan (public biographical records) |
| Mother | Ethel Merman (Ethel Agnes Zimmermann), 1908–1984 |
| Father | Robert D. Levitt (newspaper/promotions executive) |
| Sibling | Ethel (“Ethel Jr.”) Levitt, July 20, 1942 – August 23, 1967 |
| Known spouse (former) | Barbara Colby (July 2, 1939 – July 24, 1975) — reported separated at time of Colby’s death |
| Public profile | Private; no sustained public career documented |
| Public roles noted | Caretaker/manager of family affairs in later years |
Family & relationships
Robert Levitt Jr. is most often encountered in public records and biographical sketches as a relational figure: son, brother, husband. Those ties form the scaffolding of his public identity.
His mother, Ethel Merman, was a phenomenon of American musical theatre — a forceful, unmistakable voice whose name alone evokes a century of stages. Robert D. Levitt, his father, worked in newspaper promotion and was Ethel’s second husband; that household produced two children, Ethel Jr. and Robert Jr. The family story is punctuated by highs and by private grief: Robert’s sister Ethel Jr. was born July 20, 1942, and died August 23, 1967, a loss that marked the family in the years that followed.
Robert’s marriage to actress Barbara Colby places him at a knot where Hollywood and theater overlap. Colby, an actress whose career was rising in the early 1970s, was murdered in Los Angeles on July 24, 1975; contemporary accounts recorded that she and Levitt were separated at the time. The killing remains unsolved. Public references connect Levitt to Colby through that marriage, but the historical record does not present him as a public figure tied to her case beyond their prior relationship.
Career, role, and public life
There is no robust public résumé attached to Robert Levitt Jr. He does not appear in mainstream business registers, public corporate filings, or as a recurring name in entertainment credits. Instead, what surfaces in archival notes and family biographies is his role within the private geography of his mother’s life: a son who stepped into the caretaking and managerial perimeters when Ethel Merman’s health declined.
During the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, elements of public attention turned inward toward Merman’s personal affairs — her illness, her final arrangements — and sources indicate that Levitt participated in those private responsibilities. That kind of visibility is functional rather than celebrity: arranging care, managing private details, and protecting family privacy. It is work that leaves quiet marks on the paper trail: statements, permissions, executorship-type roles and the like — but not fame.
Financially, nothing in the widely available public record establishes Robert Levitt Jr. as an independently wealthy or business-facing public actor. References to family wealth often swirl around the larger circles of Ethel Merman’s life and marriages — including subsequent unions of hers — rather than around an entrepreneurial or corporate identity belonging to her son.
Timeline of notable dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| July 20, 1942 | Birth of sister Ethel (“Ethel Jr.”) Levitt. |
| August 11, 1945 | Birth of Robert Levitt Jr. (Manhattan). |
| Early–mid 1950s | Parental separation/divorce between Ethel Merman and Robert D. Levitt (public biographies place separation and subsequent divorce in this period). |
| (Date not publicly specified) | Marriage of Robert Levitt Jr. to Barbara Colby (public biographies confirm marriage, but detailed civil records not widely published online). |
| July 24, 1975 | Barbara Colby murdered in Los Angeles; she and Levitt reportedly separated at the time. Case remains unsolved. |
| 1983 | Ethel Merman diagnosed with a serious illness (public biographies cite late stage diagnosis around this period). |
| February 15, 1984 | Death of Ethel Merman. Robert Levitt Jr. is reported to have been involved in care and disposition matters. |
Numbers, absences, and the shape of a public record
Numbers and dates show what the public record is willing to make plain. They also highlight what’s missing. We can point to the exact day — August 11, 1945 — and pin a sister’s lifetime and a tragic homicide to a calendar. We can also count the absences: no clear corporate affiliations, no sustained press profile, no public social accounts, and no accessible probate or financial disclosures that single him out.
That absence is itself an argument: when a member of a famous family steps back from the limelight, the narrative becomes a negative space. It is like a stage with a single unlit exit — everyone knows where it is, but only those close enough will walk through it.
Public mentions and media echoes
Public references to Robert Levitt Jr. tend to appear in two contexts. First, as a family note in biographies of Ethel Merman — birth dates, caretaking, presence at private family moments. Second, as a relational footnote in retrospectives of Barbara Colby’s life and untimely death. In both veins, Levitt is described as a private individual connected to public people; the press seldom takes him as the story himself.
Documentary material, archival interviews, and retrospective videos about Merman or Colby cite him in passing, but those media pieces rarely paint a full portrait. Instead they sketch roles: son, spouse, sibling. He is not the protagonist of any sustained documentary arc.
The man in context
If the mid-century American stage was a bright, noisy city square, Robert Levitt Jr. is the lane that runs behind it — quieter, utilitarian, necessary for deliveries and exits. He represents a type of presence that celebrity families produce: inside the map, but not on every postcard. Where his mother’s name is a headline, his name functions as a holdfast, a familial tether that appears when private business must be attended.
Metaphorically, his public trace is like the seam of a garment — always there, rarely noticed until you look closely and see how it holds the outer fabric together. Dates, marriages, and family roles provide the stitches. The cloth remains mostly the work of others: the star on stage, the actress whose life ended violently, the biographies that celebrate and examine.
Notable gaps and possible research directions
Public documentation leaves room for more precise archival work: civil certificates (marriage, divorce), local newspaper notices, and regional public records could illuminate specific timelines and legal steps. But whether those steps would recast him as a public personality is uncertain; the available record describes discretion as a defining trait.
Portrait without spectacle
Robert Levitt Jr.’s public identity is shaped less by occupation than by family circumstance. He stands as a reminder that fame produces constellations of lives orbiting a central star — and many of those orbits are deliberately small. The record offers dates, relationships, and a narrow catalogue of duties. Beyond that, the narrative is mostly private, a life lived offstage in the shadow of a very public mother and next to a tragedy that remains unresolved.
