| Cliff Robertson  AKA Clifford Parker Robertson
Born: 9-Sep-1925
Birthplace: La Jolla, CA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Uncle Ben in Spider-Man Military service: US Merchant Marine (WWII) As a boy Robertson was fascinated with airplanes, and would often hang around the hangers at a small airport nearby, where he traded odd jobs for an occasional quick flight. A young man, he tried to enlist as a Navy flyer but with less than perfect vision he joined the Merchant Marine instead, serving during World War II. He saw action in the South Pacific, Mediterranean, North Atlantic and France. After the war Robertson became a reporter. He wrote for the Springfield Daily News in Ohio, but soon he wanted to try writing for theater. He signed on with a small playhouse, and learned the business from the back side -- building sets, hanging lights, and, because everyone was expected to perform, acting as well. To his astonishment, he received good reviews. He was offered roles off-Broadway, and eventually on Broadway, before deciding to enroll in the Actors Studio.
In 1953, he had the title role on a Saturday morning science-fiction show, Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers. In 1955, he won his first noteworthy film role in the small-town melodrama, Picnic. He played Joan Crawford's schizophrenic husband in Autumn Leaves (1956), The Big Kahoona in the first Gidget movie (1959), and a vengeful safecracker in Samuel Fuller's Underworld U.S.A. (1961). When Warner Brothers announced plans to film PT 109, a book about the new President's war heroics, Kennedy himself suggested Robertson for the lead.
Robertson won the Best Actor Oscar in 1968 for playing Charly, a retarded man whose intelligence is increased in a scientific experiment. He later wrote, produced, directed, and starred in J.W. Coop, a small 1971 gem about a rough-luck rodeo cowboy. He played a CIA middle-management type in Three Days of the Condor (1975), and a haunted husband in Brian De Palma's best film, Obsession (1976).
In 1977, Robertson's career was abruptly interrupted when he learned that studio head David Begelman had written a check for $10,000, payable to Robertson for work Robertson had not done. And after writing the check, Begelman had then endorsed it, to himself. The situation smelled funny to Robertson. Indecent Exposure, a book by David McClintick, details the scandal, which turned out to be much bigger than one phony $10,000 check. Begelman pleaded no contest to grand theft, was fined $5,000, jumped to a different studio, and continued his career. Years later he committed suicide. Robertson was unofficially blacklisted, and was for several years absent from the big screen.
In 1979, he directed and starred in The Pilot, an introspective drama about an alcoholic airline pilot, but it was barely distributed in America. In 1983, Robertson returned as Hugh Hefner in Star 80, and as the CEO of a company researching memory replay in the science fiction film, Brainstorm. In recent decades he has become a reliable character actor, appearing in dozens of films and TV shows, from Falcon Crest to Escape from L.A. to Spider-Man.
Robertson now collects airplanes, and is an avid pilot. He holds single-engine land and sea, multiengine, commercial, instrument, balloon and glider ratings. Aviation is more of a passion to him than acting. He is a close friend of Burt Rutan, designer of the Voyager airplane and SpaceShipOne. In 1969, as Nigeria was ravaged by civil war, Robertson helped organize flights bringing food and medicine into the area. And in 1978, when Ethiopia was hit by famine, Robertson again organized incoming supply flights for charity.
Wife: Cynthia Stone Lemmon (Jack Lemmon's ex-wife; m. 1957, div. 1959)
Daughter: Stephanie Robertson
Wife: Dina Merrill (actress, m. 1966; div. 1989)
Daughter: Heather Robertson (dancer)
University: Journalism, Antioch College
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Ducks Unlimited
Experimental Aircraft Association
Screen Actors Guild New York Board of Directors
Endorsement of AT&T
Oscar for Best Actor 1969 for Charly
Emmy 1966 for Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre "The Game"
Hollywood Walk of Fame 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Spider-Man 3 (16-Apr-2007)
Riding the Bullet (15-Oct-2004)
Spider-Man 2 (30-Jun-2004)
13th Child: Legend of the Jersey Devil (25-Oct-2002)
Spider-Man (3-May-2002)
Mach 2 (13-Mar-2001)
Falcon Down (2000)
Family Tree (13-May-1999)
Escape from L.A. (9-Aug-1996)
Renaissance Man (3-Jun-1994)
Wind (11-Sep-1992)
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (24-May-1991)
Malone (1-May-1987)
Star 80 (10-Nov-1983)
Brainstorm (30-Sep-1983)
Class (6-Jul-1983)
Dominique (1978)
Obsession (01-Aug-1976)
Shoot (28-May-1976)
Midway (1976)
Three Days of the Condor (24-Sep-1975)
Out of Season (Jun-1975)
Man on a Swing (1974)
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (12-May-1972)
Too Late the Hero (20-May-1970)
Charly (23-Sep-1968)
The Devil's Brigade (15-May-1968)
The Honey Pot (21-Mar-1967)
Love Has Many Faces (24-Feb-1965)
633 Squadron (24-Jun-1964)
The Best Man (5-Apr-1964)
Sunday in New York (13-Nov-1963)
PT 109 (19-Jun-1963)
My Six Loves (3-Apr-1963)
The Interns (8-Aug-1962)
Underworld USA (13-May-1961)
The Big Show (10-May-1961)
All in a Night's Work (22-Mar-1961)
Battle of the Coral Sea (23-Oct-1959)
Gidget (10-Apr-1959)
The Naked and the Dead (6-Aug-1958)
The Girl Most Likely (17-Dec-1957)
Autumn Leaves (1-Aug-1956)
Picnic (11-Feb-1956)
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