Born September 9, 1923 to the idle heir to a ranching fortune and his first of five wives, Clifford Parker Robinson III, known professionally as Cliff Robertson, his parents divorced when he was one and his mother died of peritonitis a year later. He was raised by his maternal grandmother.
Robertson served as third mate on a ship in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II and had two uncredited roles in two 1943 war films.
After the war, Robertson worked as a journalist while attending college. He then studied acting at New York Actors Studio, becoming a lifetime member. He worked steadily on television in the early 1950s, and on Broadway in 1953’s Late Love and 1955’s The Wisteria Tree, written by Joshua Logan. He made his official film debut as William Holden’s friend in Logan’s 1955 film version of Picnic, a role originated on Broadway by Paul Newman.
In 1956, Robertson starred opposite Joan Crawford in Autumn Leaves. He married Cynthia Stone, Jack Lemmon’s ex-wife in 1957. In 1958, he starred in The Girl Most Likely opposite Jane Powell and headed the cast of The Naked and the Dead. That same year he starred in the TV version of Days of Wine and Roses opposite Piper Laurie. He and Stone had a daughter but would divorce in 1959. The actor then made a series of mostly forgettable films, re-emerging as a star when President Kennedy chose him to play the young JFK in PT 109.
Other films of the mid-1960s included Sunday in New York, The Best Man, 633 Squadron, Love Has Many Faces, The Honey Pot, and The Devil’s Brigade. He would marry actress Dina Merrill in 1966 with whom he would ave a second daughter.
Having lost the film version of Days of Wine and Roses to Jack Lemmon, Robertson was determined not to have another one of his key 1950s TV roles turned into a film for another actor, so he bought the film rights to Flowers for Algernon based on his 1953 TV play, The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon. Called Charly, the 1968 film earned Robertson the Oscar on his first and only nomination.
Robertson directed himself in the 1972 modern western, J.W. Coop to mixed reviews. He then gave memorable performances in two made-for-TV productions, The Man Without a Country and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in which he had the role that won James Dunn his 1945 Oscar. He then segued into supporting roles with 1975’s Three Days of the Condor and 1976’s Midway before playing his last starring role on the big screen in that same year’s Obsession.
In the 1980s, Robertson appeared in supporting roles in such films as Star 80 and Brainstorm. He was divorced from Merrill in 1989.
After another long period of mostly forgettable films, Robertson became popular with a new generation of filmgoers with his portrayal of Ben Parker, Peter Parker’s uncle in Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man and its sequels.
Cliff Robertson died on September 10, 2011, one day after his 88th birthday.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
PICNIC (1955), directed by Joshua Logan
Both William Holden, 37, and Robertson, 31, were a bit long in the tooth for playing former college roommates in their late 20s, but audiences didn’t mind. Holden’s chemistry with Kim Novak, 22, is legendary, especially in their dance to “Moonglow”. Logan, who directed William Inge’s play on stage, does a remarkable job of opening up the play, filming it amidst Kanss thunderstorms and tornadoes. Audiences came to see Holden and Novak but left singing the praises of the supporting cast led by Robertson, Susan Strasberg, Betty Field, Verna Felton, and most memorably, Arthur O’Connell and Rosalind Russell.
THE BEST MAN (1964), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
One of the great political dramas of the era, Robertson and Henry Fonda play presidential hopefuls seeking the endorsement of a beloved former president. The political party is not mentioned, and the actors have attributes of both famous Democrats and Republicans. Fonda’s character is based on Adalia Stevenson, Robertson’s on Richard Nixon with a little Joe McCarthy, JFK and Robert Kennedy thrown in. Lee Tracy’s Oscar nominated former president has attributes of both Truman and Eisenhower. The strong supporting cast includes Margare Leighton, Edie Adams, Kevin McCarthy, and a picture stealing Ann Sothern.
CHARLY (1968), directed by Ralph Nelson
Chagrined by the loss of his greatest TV role in Days of Wine and Roses to his ex-wife’s first husband Jack Lemmon in the film version, Robertson bought the film rights to Flowers for Algernon based on his 1953 TV play, The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon about an intellectually disabled man who undergoes an experiment that gives him the intelligence of a genius. Alas, the change is only temporary to the sorrow of girlfriend Claire Bloom and the regret of his doctor, Lilia Skala. The result was an Oscar for the actor over early favorites Peter O’Toole in The Lion in Winter and Alan Arkin in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
OBSESSION (1976), directed by Brian De Palma
Bernard Herrmann received posthumous Oscar nominations for both this film and Taxi Driver, both of which were written by Paul Schrader and directed by De Palma. This was De Palma’s tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo for which Herrmann also provided the score. Robertson, in his last starring role in a major film, earned the enmity of De Palma, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, co-star Genevie Bujold, and Herrmann for his insistence on an inappropriate dark makeup that was difficult to film, and for his deliberate fumbling of his lines to keep Bujold off balance. Somehow it all works anyway.
SPIDER-MAN (2002), directed by Sam Raimi
Robertson’s last hurrah was his supporting role as the uncle of Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the first iteration of the comic book hero on the big screen with sequels coming in 2004 and 2007. It earned him a new generation of filmgoing fans. Critics singled out his performance along with those of Maguire as Spidey and Willem Dafoe as principal villain Green Goblin as the best of a group of fine performances that included those of Kirsten Dunst as Peter’s crush Mary Jane, James Franco as the son of the Green Gobler and Peter’s best friend, J.K. Simmons as Peter’s grumpy boss, and Rosemary Harris as his beloved Aunt May.
CLIFF ROBERTSON AND OSCAR
Charly (1968) – Oscar – Best Actor
