Cliff Robertson

Clifford Parker Robertson III (La Jolla, California, September 9, 1923 – New York, September 10, 2011) was an American actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1968.

Biography

Early Years

He was born in La Jolla, a town near Los Angeles, and received the name Clifford Parker Robertson III. His parents owned a ranch and were well off. During his school years, Robertson enrolled in drama classes because it was a way to avoid having to attend several of the classes at school. However, this activity helped him develop an interest in acting.

During World War II he was called up and upon his return from military service he entered Antioch University in Ohio State. His first job was as a radio host, but he soon turned to the theater, which he did traveling for two years with a traveling troupe. From there he landed a role on Broadway, where he debuted in 1952 in a play directed by Joshua Logan.

Film career

Cliff and Mona Freeman in 1961.

After three years, Logan offered him a supporting role in Picnic, a film starring William Holden and Kim Novak that marked the beginning of his film career. The same year he already obtained a leading role in the film Autumn Leaves , released in 1956, in which he starred alongside Joan Crawford. Reviews of his performance were positive, which allowed him to have weight in the choice of his next films.

In 1963, he starred in the war film PT 109, based on the heroic actions of then-Lieutenant John F. Kennedy in the Pacific during World War II that would earn him the Navy and Corps Medal of Marines. It was President Kennedy himself who personally chose Robertson to play his character. During the years that followed, Robertson continued to make films that were generally successful. It became clear that this straight-faced actor would not be a movie star, but a reliable actor, capable of playing very different characters.

In 1968 Robertson acted in Charly, an adaptation of the novel Flowers for Algernon, in which he masterfully played a person with mental retardation who is subjected to a scientific experiment, as a result of which his intelligence develops to genius levels. For this performance, he won an Oscar for Best Leading Actor and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Since then he has appeared in numerous films, in roles that as he has grown older have often been of a secondary nature, without diminishing the recognition of critics and the public. He was also participating in television productions, a medium in which he came to feel comfortable. His last major role was playing Ben Parker in the Spider-Man film trilogy.

Private life

Robertson was married twice. His first marriage lasted only two years, while the second time he was married for 20 years. Both marriages ended in divorce. Of each of them Robertson had a daughter.

Death

The actor died of natural causes in New York at age 88 on September 10, 2011 just one day after his birthday.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Awards and recognitions

Oscar Awards