Edward G. Robinson
| Edward G. Robinson | |
|---|---|
 1931 studio publicity photo |
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| Born | Emanuel Goldenberg December 12, 1893 Bucharest, Romania |
| Died | January 26, 1973 (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1913–1973 |
| Spouse |
Gladys Lloyd (m. 1927–1956) |
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; Yiddish: עמנואל גאָלדנבערג; December 12, 1893 – January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-born American actor.[1] A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo. Other memorable roles include Barton Keyes in the film noir Double Indemnity, and as Dathan in The Ten Commandments.[2] Robinson was selected for an Honorary Academy Award for his work in the film industry, which was posthumously awarded two months after the actor's death in 1973. He was included in the American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest male stars in American cinema.
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[edit] Early years and education
Born as Emanuel Goldenberg to a Yiddish-speaking Romanian-Jewish family in Bucharest, he immigrated with his family to New York City in 1903. He had his Bar Mitzvah at First Roumanian-American congregation,[3] and attended Townsend Harris High School and then the City College of New York. An interest in acting led to him winning an American Academy of Dramatic Arts scholarship, after which he changed his name to Edward G. Robinson (the G. signifying his original last name).
[edit] Career
He began his acting career in 1913 and made his Broadway debut in 1915. He made his film debut in a minor and uncredited role in 1916; in 1923 he made his named debut as E. G. Robinson in The Bright Shawl. One of many actors who saw his career flourish in the new sound film era rather than falter, he made only three films prior to 1930 but left his stage career that year and made 14 films between 1930-1932.
Robinson was popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was able to avoid many flops during a 50-year career that included 101 films. An acclaimed performance as the gangster Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little Caesar (1931) led to him being typecast as a "tough guy" for much of his early career in works such as Five Star Final (1931), Smart Money (1931; his only movie with James Cagney), Tiger Shark (1932), Kid Galahad (1937) with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, and A Slight Case of Murder. Due to age, he could not qualify for military service during WWII.[4] Instead in the 1940s, Robinson demonstrated his ability to succeed in comedic and film noir roles, including Raoul Walsh's Manpower (1941) with Marlene Dietrich and George Raft, Larceny, Inc. (1942) with Jane Wyman and Broderick Crawford, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944) with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window (1945) with Joan Bennett and Raymond Massey, Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street (1945) with Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea, and Orson Welles' The Stranger (1946) with Orson Welles and Loretta Young. As a memorable tribute to his past gangster roles, he appeared for director John Huston as 'Johnny Rocco' in Key Largo (1948). Key Largo would be the last of five films he made with Humphrey Bogart and the only one in which Bogart didn't play a supporting role. Bogart had top billing but Robinson's name was placed slightly higher and to the right of Bogart's on posters and in the film itself, and his image was larger and centered in the original posters, with Bogart in the background while Robinson wrestles with Bacall in the foreground. In the film's trailer, Bogart is mentioned more often but at the trailer's very end, Robinson's name is listed above Bogart's in a cast list of the main players. The role of Rocco was quite similar to that of Duke Mantee, Bogart's breakthrough role in 1936 that the studio had initially assigned to Robinson.
On three occasions in 1950 and 1952, he was called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee and was threatened with blacklisting.[5] Robinson took steps to clear his name, such as having a representative go through his check stubs to ensure that none had been issued to subversive organizations.[6] He also gave names of Communist sympathizers and his own name was cleared, but thereafter he received smaller roles and even those less frequently.
During this time, he appeared in numerous 'B' movies for American International Pictures and other low-budget studios while attempting to regain his prior status as a major film actor. Some of these films, such as Vice Squad (1953) proved excellent in their own right, while others, such as 1958's Tank Battalion, were critical and commercial failures. Anti-communist director Cecil B. DeMille cast him as Dathan in The Ten Commandments in 1956, freeing him to make A-list films again. Robinson's acting career was subsequently bolstered by notable roles in 1959's A Hole in the Head opposite Frank Sinatra and The Cincinnati Kid (1965), which showcased Robinson alongside Steve McQueen.
Robinson tried to talk his way into the titular part in The Godfather (1972), which was how he had won the role of Little Caesar 40 years earlier, but Francis Ford Coppola decided on Marlon Brando instead, over the initial objections of the studio. Director Peter Bogdanovich was offered the film before Coppola but turned it down, and has insisted ever since that he would have definitely cast Robinson in the part.
Robinson's last-filmed scene of his last acting role was a euthanasia sequence in the science fiction cult film Soylent Green (1973). Immediately prior to filming the scene, Robinson told his co-star, and long-time friend Charlton Heston, that he was dying from cancer and had weeks to live, at best. As the actors were to play the scene together, Robinson thought that the knowledge of his impending death would affect Heston's playing of the scene, thus the on-screen tears of Heston's character in the final print of the film are genuine. Robinson died twelve days later.
[edit] Personal life
Robinson married his first wife, stage actress Gladys Lloyd, in 1927; born Gladys Lloyd Cassell, she was the former wife of Ralph L. Vestervelt and the daughter of Clement C. Cassell, an architect, sculptor, and artist. The couple had one son, Edward Goldenberg Robinson, Jr. (a.k.a Manny Robinson, 1933–1974), as well as a daughter from Gladys Robinson's first marriage.[7] He could speak seven languages and his chief pastime was collecting records of the world's leading concerts. An inveterate cigar smoker, Robinson smoked cigars in many of his movie roles to accentuate his character.
Robinson built up a significant art collection, especially of abstract modern art. In 1956, he sold it to Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos to raise cash for his divorce settlement with Gladys Robinson; his finances had suffered due to underemployment in the early 1950s.
Edward G. Robinson died from cancer in 1973, and is buried in a crypt in the family mausoleum at Beth-El Cemetery in the Ridgewood area of the borough of Queens in New York City.
[edit] Legacy
Robinson has been the inspiration for a number of television characters. Firstly, an early version of the gangster character Rocky, featured in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Racketeer Rabbit, shared his likeness. This version of the character also appears briefly in Justice League, in the episode "Comfort and Joy", as an alien with Robinson's face and non-human body, who hovers past the screen as a background character. Similar caricatures also appeared in The CooCooNut Grove, Thugs with Dirty Mugs and Hush My Mouse. Another character based on Robinson's gangster image was The Frog from the cartoon series Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. The voice of B.B. Eyes in The Dick Tracy Show was based on Robinson, with Mel Blanc and Jerry Hausner sharing voicing duties. Voice actor Hank Azaria has said that the voice of Simpsons character police chief Clancy Wiggum is an impression of Robinson.[8] This has been explicitly joked about in episodes of the show. In "The Day the Violence Died" (1996), a character states that Chief Wiggum is clearly based on Robinson. In 2008's "Treehouse of Horror XIX", Wiggum and Robinson's ghost each accuse the other of being rip-offs.[citation needed]
Robinson was never nominated for an Academy Award, but in 1973 he was awarded an honorary Oscar in recognition that he had "achieved greatness as a player, a patron of the arts, and a dedicated citizen ... in sum, a Renaissance man".[9] He died two months before the award ceremony, thus the award was collected by his widow Jane Robinson.[2]
[edit] Filmography
[edit] References
- ^ Obituary Variety, January 31, 1973, page 71.
- ^ a b "Edward G. Robinson, 79, Dies; His 'Little Caesar' Set a Style; Man of Great Kindness Edward G. Robinson Is Dead at 79 Made Speeches to Friends Appeared in 100 Films". New York Times. 1973-01-27, Saturday. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A10FB3E551A7493C5AB178AD85F478785F9. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "Edward G. Robinson, whose tough, sinister appearance on movie screens concealed the soul of a gentle man, died today at the age of 79. Mr. Robinson succumbed at Mount Sinai Hospital where he had undergone tests in recent weeks. The cause of death was not immediately determined"
- ^ Epstein (2007), p. 249
- ^ Wise, James: Stars in Khaki: Movie Actors in the Army and Air Services. Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55750-095-1. Page 228.
- ^ Sabin, Arthur J. In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday, p. 35. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999
- ^ ibid.; Bud and Ruth Schultz, It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression in America, p. 113. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
- ^ "Edward G. Robinson, Jr. Is Dead; Late Screen Star's Son Was 40". New York Times. 1974-02-27, Wednesday. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C13FB3E59127A93C5AB1789D85F408785F9. Retrieved 2007-07-21. "Edward G. Robinson Jr., the son of the late screen actor, died yesterday. Mr. Robinson, who was 40 years old, was found unconscious by his wife, Nan, in their West Hollywood home. His death was attributed to natural causes."
- ^ Joe Rhodes (2000-10-21). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide.
- ^ [1] Awards for Edward G. Robinson at the International Movie Database
- Epstein, Lawrence Jeffrey.Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, 1880-1920, John Wiley & Sons, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7879-8622-3
[edit] Further reading
- Gansberg, Alan L. (2004). Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4950-X.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edward G. Robinson |
- Edward G. Robinson at the Internet Movie Database
- Edward G. Robinson at the TCM Movie Database
- Edward G. Robinson at the Internet Broadway Database
- Photographs and literature
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- Romanian Jews
- Romanian emigrants to the United States
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
- Hollywood blacklist
- Academy Honorary Award recipients
- American art collectors
- City College of New York alumni
- People from Bucharest
- Jewish actors
- Jewish activists
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- Cancer deaths in California
- 20th-century actors
- 1893 births
- 1973 deaths
