 Roberts was inactive as a performer for the next twenty years, working instead as a photographer.In 1986, when commissioned to take still photographs of the remake of the 1939 John Wayne film, "Stagecoach", he was recruited by director Ted Post to play the role of the outlaw Hank Plummer.The mature Roberts now projected a persona evocative of the Old West, with an imposing beard and patriarchal demeanor.