Robert Osterloh was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was Director Rudolph Maté who, in 1948, gave Osterloh his first opportunity in film, introducing him in The Dark Past, in which he had a supporting role. Osterloh continued his career for 20 years, mainly in the 1950s, playing roles in films such as Illegal Entry (1949), White Heat (1949) (as a gangster killed by gang boss James Cagney), One Minute to Zero (1952), Star in the Dust (1956) and I Bury the Living (1958). In the 1960s, however, he appeared in only a few films such as Young Dillinger (1965) and his last film, Coogan's Bluff (1968).