Cliff Robertson

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Birth Name: Clifford Parker Robertson III

Born: 9 September 1923 Died: 10 September 2011

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 10"

Relationship Status: Single

Lists

117 votes

I won an Oscar... (158 items)
list by propelas

Published 11 years, 9 months ago

12 comments

58 votes

Best Actor Oscar Winners (76 items)
list by Raquel

Published 15 years, 5 months ago

4 comments

46 votes

Rest in Peace (475 items)
list by ercer

Published 13 years, 6 months ago

3 comments

32 votes

Tough Guys (62 items)
list by coroner

Published 16 years, 2 months ago

2 comments

30 votes

They won their first Award after... Actors! (46 items)
list by Happy Vader

Published 13 years, 5 months ago

6 comments

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Description: Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly. On television, he portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 adaptation of John Ehrlichman's Watergate novel The Company, and portrayed Henry Ford in Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly. On television, he portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 adaptation of John Ehrlichman's Watergate novel The Company, and portrayed Henry Ford in the 1987 Ford: The Man and the Machine. His last well-known film appearances were in 2002 through 2007 as Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man film trilogy.

Robertson was born on September 9, 1923 in La Jolla, California, the son of Clifford Parker Robertson, Jr. (1902–1968), and his first wife, the former Audrey Olga Willingham (1903-1925). His Texas-born father was described as "the idle heir to a tidy sum of ranching money". Robertson recalled that his father "was a very romantic figure—tall, handsome. He married four or five times, and between marriages he'd pop in to see me. He was a great raconteur, and he was always surrounded by sycophants who let him pick up the tab. During the Depression, he tapped the trust for $500,000, and six months later he was back for more." The actor's parents divorced when he was one, and Robertson's mother died of peritonitis a year later in El Paso, Texas, at the age of 21. He was raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Eleanor "Eleanora" Willingham (née Sawyer, 1875–1957), in California, and he and his father rarely saw each other. He graduated in 1941 from La Jolla High School, where he was known as "The Walking Phoenix". He then served in the United States Merchant Marine in World War II before attending Antioch College in Ohio and dropping out to work as a journalist for a short time.

Robertson had a bit part in Mr. Roberts (1950) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Robertson was President John F. Kennedy's personal choice to play him in 1963's PT 109 as a young Lieutenant PT boat captain. Kennedy chose Robertson over Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Warren Beatty (Jacqueline Kennedy's choice), and Jeffrey Hunter.

The next year, Robertson played a presidential candidate in The Best Man. ... (more)