Cliff Robertson
| Cliff Robertson | |
|---|---|
Robertson in 1981
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| Born |
Clifford Parker Robertson III September 9, 1923 La Jolla, California, U.S. |
| Died | September 10, 2011 (aged 88) Stony Brook, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1942–2008 |
| Spouse(s) |
Cynthia Stone (m. 1957; div. 1959) Dina Merrill (m. 1966; div. 1989) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
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 miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, 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 in La Jolla, California, the son of Clifford Parker Robertson, Jr. (1902–1968), and his first wife, Audrey Olga Robertson (née Willingham; 1903–1925). His Texas-born father was described as "the idle heir to a tidy sum of ranching money". Robertson once said, "[My 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."
Robertson's parents divorced when he was one, and his 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 rarely saw his father. He graduated in 1941 from La Jolla High School, where he was known as "The Walking Phoenix". He served in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II, before attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and dropping out to work as a journalist for a short time.
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