Cliff Robertson, who won an Oscar in 1968 and became known to modern audiences for his roll as Uncle Ben in the "Spider-Man" movies, died yesterday. He was 88. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1968 for his portrayal of a mentally disabled man in the movie "Charly."
Spiderman is orphan now :C RIP
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ReplyDeleteAn amazing actor.
ReplyDeleteMay he RIP.
Robertson was a great actor. He was also one of the sad cases of what happens when you take on power in Hollywood. Back in the 1970s, he found out that the head of Columbia Pictures (what is now Sony), David Begelman, was embezzling from the studio by issuing a $10,000 check that was supposedly going to Robertson. When Robertson exposed Begelman's actions -- and the FBI confirmed the forged check -- Columbia (which had quietly reinstated Begelman back into his gig) worked to blacklist Robertson for most of the rest of his career. (Begelman also lied about being a Yale graduate, which also led the university to go after him as well.)
ReplyDeleteThe case was profiled in David McClintick's Indecent Exposure (http://www.amazon.com/Indecent-Exposure-David-McClintick/dp/0440140072), one of the greatest books ever written about the business of entertainment.
Robertson finally got some of his due. But he deserved much better than what was done to him during his lifetime.
I was very sad to hear this news because I enjoyed him in any role I have seen him in. I had no idea how old he was either, he always seemed at least 10 years younger.
ReplyDeleteRIP Cliff
Was he married to Dina Merrill?
ReplyDeleteI always liked his acting.
Loved him in "Charly". I saw that when I was in high school when it first came out. I thought the ending was so sad.
ReplyDelete@califblondy - yes, he was.
ReplyDeleteCharly was based on the book "Flowers for Algernon." Great book, great movie.
And sevenmack is right, he was more or less blacklisted for a number of years, and threatened, when he went to the police. Sad.
RIP, Cliff, Enjoyed all your movies.
ReplyDeleteHow sad that I didn't know he won an Oscar. I only remember from playing secondary character rolls in a few movies. Wasn't he in Dallas?
ReplyDeleteLoved him in Charley, which was based on one of my favorite short stories-Flowers for Algernon.
ReplyDeleteI knew he was blacklisted but didn't know why, thanks for the info.
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